Finding Our Way
by AnneRG
Summary: Mia and Sirius met when they were eleven. As the years passed, their roles in each other's lives grew and changed. What does the future reserve to them? Edited Version of the Original Story - Several Changes made, better grammar, etc.
1. Beginnings

**Title: **Finding Our Way

**Author:** AnneRG

**Pairings:** Sirius/OC, Lily/James

**Rating:** 15+

**Warning: **This is an edited reposting of a fic with the same name. Lots of changes.

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Wish it belonged to me…

**September 1****st**** 1971**

The platform 9 ¾ was filled with Hogwarts students. Some were going back to school, others were visiting it for the first time. The truth was that each and every one of them was excited to go there. Hogwarts was portrayed as a wonderful place, mostly remembered by its former students with a smile.

Among the students and right next to the train's door, a brown haired girl with chocolate coloured eyes, not older than eleven was standing along with three adults: a couple in their early fifties and a woman in her later twenties.

"The train leaves at eleven, doesn't it?" her mother asked, checking her watch. She looked down at her daughter. "Your father and I have a meeting in the ministry in five minutes. I'm afraid we won't be able to see you off, Amelia."

"It's alright, Mum," the girl answered as she kissed her mother goodbye. She was already used to the fact that her parents never had time to spend with her. Not even today when she was going to Hogwarts for the first time.

"Have a good school year, Mia," her father said kissing her forehead.

"Don't forget to write," Mia asked them before they disappeared with a 'pop' and she was left alone with her long-term nanny, Lulu, who was more her parent than Susan and Philip Davis ever were.

"Unbelievable," Lulu muttered under her breath. In the eleven years that she had spent working for the Davises, Lulu had never gotten used to how they didn't seem to care about Mia. She hated them and herself for that. "I just don't get your parents, Mia. I really don't."

"It's okay," Mia told her. "I didn't really have my hopes up about them staying."

"But it doesn't make it right, does it?" her nanny asked, meeting her eyes.

Lulu had always been more than a nanny to Mia. Since she was seventeen, Lucy Kathleen Graham had been in charge of Mia under the orders of her grandmother, Margaret Davis. Despite her wild (activist) nature and young age, Lulu had taken the task very seriously and Mia had become the centre of her life – she was more a daughter to Lulu than she would ever imagine…

"Who would need them when they have you?" Mia simply asked. "You're gonna write, aren't you?"

Lulu smiled. "Every week and I want a full report in return. The house will be so quiet without you."

"You could always find a husband," Mia said, mischievously.

"Marriage doesn't fit me," answered Lulu. "You should go and find yourself a compartment."

"I know," she hugged her tightly. "And you'll get married someday, mark my words. I'll see you in Christmas, Lu."

She entered the train and waved at Lulu from the window before entering one of the compartments. Hogwarts would bring change. She knew that.

---

"You stay away from those mudbloods, Sirius Black!" Orion Black ordered his son, who seemed to be anything but interested in what his father was saying.

"Sirius Black! Listen to your father!" his mother, Walburga, demanded, hitting her son on the back of the head.

"It's none of your business who I make friends with!" Sirius shouted.

"Don't you speak like that to your mother! Behave like the pureblood you are, disgraceful little brat!" his father declared.

Sirius gave his parents a daring look. To tell truth, he was so glad to finally leave them behind. The only thing that worried him was leaving his younger brother at their mercy. They would mess with his brain, the old bats. "I'm going," he said abruptly. "Bye Reggie."

His younger brother waved at him. "Bye Sirius!" Regulus answered brightly. "Don't forget to write!"

The Blacks watched their oldest son enter the Hogwarts express with rigid faces.

"That boy, he'll be our death," Orion commented.

Walburga simply nodded.

---

Mia watched through the window as the platform disappeared out of her view. The compartment was empty and several students still walked through the corridor looking for their friends.

Suddenly, someone knocked the door and Mia turned her attention from the landscape to the person knocking.

"I'm sorry," a girl with blonde, wavy hair that went down to the middle of her back and bright blue eyes asked, followed by two boys Mia couldn't really see. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

"Of course not," Mia answered. "I'm Amelia Davis, by the way, but you can call me Mia."

"I'm Elizabeth Harper," the girl said, stepping in. Then, she gestured to the two boys behind her. "These are Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

"Nice to meet you," she told them. The two boys were very different from each other physically. One was very short and had small watery eyes and his hair was mousy brown. The other was taller, with light brown hair and brown eyes. He looked sort of ill at the moment. Mia guessed he had probably been fighting a nasty flu or something.

"I'm sorry, we almost lost the train, the other compartments are full," the taller boy said apologetically.

"It's alright," Mia said.

For a good half hour, the four got to know each other. Elizabeth explained she was from London and her father owned a broom company. Her mother was a model and worked in a bank. Remus, the taller boy, stated he was from the north of England and his parents worked in an apothecary. Peter didn't speak much and only mentioned he lived with his mother in Scotland.

A little after lunch time, two other people showed up their compartment: a red headed girl and a boy with black greasy hair.

"Hello, I'm Lily Evans, this is Severus Snape, do you mind if we sit here?" the girl asked.

"No, the more, the merrier," Mia said and the rest of the group nodded in agreement.

"Thank you," Lily said, occupying the seat by Remus's side as Snape sat on Peter's left.

Mia quickly introduced everyone in the group to the newcomers in order to put everyone at ease.

"It took you this long to find a compartment?" Remus inquired with an eyebrow raised.

"We had already found one," she explained. "But there were two awful boys in there who kept picking on Sev, so we left."

"That's horrible!" Elizabeth said. "Were they first years too?"

Lily nodded.

---

After leaving the boats that had taken them to the castle through the lake, the first years were taken to McGonagall, who, after describing the school houses, had taken the students to the Great Hall for the sorting.

"Avery, Sebastian," she called.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Sirius."

Mia watched as a very good looking boy with black hair received the hat to be selected. He grinned at another boy, among the first years. This one had messy black hair and wore glasses.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius all but raised his arms in victory, which lead Mia to believe he was happy about the sorting.

"Davis, Amelia."

Mia's heart raced, it felt like it was going to explode. She slowly walked and stood next to McGonagall, who put the old hat in her head.

"_Amelia Davis… Mother in Hufflepuff, father in Gryffindor… I think I know where to put you,_" it said. "GRYFFINDOR!"

As she joined the other Gryffindors, Mia was confused. Her parents had both been in Ravenclaw. The hat had to be confusing her with somebody else… She sat by Sirius Black's side, still wondering if she was the one wrong.

"Hi, I'm Sirius," he said, interrupting her thoughts. "You're Amelia, aren't you?"

She nodded. "But call me Mia. Only my mother calls me Amelia."

"Looks like we both are in Gryffindor," Sirius said smiling.

"You seem surprised," commented Mia. "You seemed pretty glad when you were sorted…"

"Oh, I am, you don't imagine how much I am. My whole family was in Slytherin." He pointed at a very pale blonde prefect sitting by the Slytherin table. "See that girl, the prefect?" he asked. "She's my cousin, Narcissa." He pointed at an older girl, this one with brown hair. "That's her sister, Andromeda. Actually, I don't know how she ended up in Slytherin. She's really nice, my favourite cousin, actually. Their older sister, Bellatrix, she's graduated already, that one's a bad piece; Slytherin through and through."

"It does look like you broke the tradition," Mia pointed out. "I guess it is a good thing."

"I bet tomorrow I'll receive a Howler. My parents will be cursing Merlin when they know," Sirius told her, a devious grin playing on his face. "They had it coming, the old bats."

Mia smiled sympathetically, knowing what it was like to have unfit parents. Minutes later, Lily joined them by the Gryffindor table.

"Hey Lily," Mia said as the redhead sat by her side. "We're in the same house!"

"Yeah," said Lily in a low voice.

"You seem sad," she stated.

"It's not that I didn't want to be in your house, it's just that I wanted to be in the same house as Sev and don't think he'll come to Gryffindor," Lily explained.

"That doesn't mean anything," Mia told her. "You can still be friends. I'm sure the two of you will be fine. Besides, the two of us get to share dorms now."

"Make it three!" a familiar voice said behind them. It was Elizabeth. "I'm a Gryffindor too!"

The sorting continued. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were also sorted into Gryffindor, along with a boy named James Potter, who, according to Lily, was the one who had made fun of Severus, who, as she had predicted was sorted into another house – Slytherin.

---

The feast went on smoothly and, after a brief speech made by the headmaster, the first years were guided to the common room by the prefects. Most of them were overwhelmed by the whole castle – high ceiling, moving staircases...

"Unbelievable," Lily said, watching the portrait of a fat lady speaking to a prefect before it moved and revealed the entrance to the Gryffindor's tower. Being a muggle-born, she had never seen that sort of thing before. "It's amazing."

"Mum once told me you have to mix a potion with the paint to make the portraits alive," Elizabeth explained as they entered the common room, all decorated in red and gold.

"Brilliant," Lily whispered.

"Did any of you hear the password?" Mia asked suddenly. They would be in big trouble if they didn't know it.

"It was 'Godric'," someone said behind her. She turned around to see Sirius standing there. "I see you are interested in the moving paintings. We have a bunch of these portraits back home. They get sort of irritating after a while."

"You and your friend James sure must know about being irritating," Lily spat at him.

Mia was a little taken aback. Had the two met each other before?

"Don't tell me you're still mad about our little joke about your friend," Sirius replied in disbelief. "He was sort of being annoying with the whole Slytherin pride."

_Oh, so he was one of the boys who picked on Lily's friend in the train, _Mia concluded

"You still didn't have to be rude," Lily told him with a scowl.

Sirius was about to respond, but James Potter, the other 'bully' in Lily's book. "Hey, Sirius, I was looking for you." It was only then that he noticed Lily. "Oh, we meet again. Lily Evans, right?"

"Yes," she replied coldly.

"I'm…"

"James Potter, I know," she finished dryly and turned to Mia and Elizabeth, who had just stood there, watching the exchange. "I think I'm going up to the dorm. Are you coming too?"

Elizabeth nodded and joined her.

"I think I'm gonna stay a little longer," Mia told them. "I'll see you there in a while, okay?"

"Sure. See you in a while," Lily said, before going up the stairs that lead to the girl's dorms, along with Elizabeth.

James watched closely as the redhead girl left. "That Evans girl is interesting," he mumbled.

"You sure are not her favourite person right now," Mia pointed out.

He shrugged. "She'll get over it."

Mia and Sirius crossed looks, before bursting in laugher.

"You're marked, mate," Sirius said. "She'll loathe you for all eternity."

**A/N: I've been sort of missing for an year, haven't I? Well, I had a very busy transition college, so, sorry about that. This reposting things comes as a way to prepare you for a new fic I've started developing (no, I'm not abandoning 'The Ties That Bind Us', it is simply in Hiatus). For those who hadn't read the original version of this fic, enjoy, for the others, please keep reading 'cause I'm changing a few stuff. I hope you like it. **

**Send some feedback, please.  
Anne**


	2. My Own Birthday

As the months passed since Mia came to Hogwarts, she got to know her fellow students better. Elizabeth and Lily were now her irrevocable best friends. They were basically together all the time, except when Lily was hanging out with Severus, who didn't feel very comfortable around them.

Sirius Black and James Potter had revealed themselves to be a lot more mischievous than Mia thought at first. Strange things, like pranks on the Slytherins and Filch, the caretaker, who seemed to be in a constant war with Peeves, the poltergeist, seemed to happen all the time when they were around. Along with Remus Lupin, they had taken little Peter Pettigrew under their wing and became a close group of friends.

Autumn had came and gone and winter was already halfway done. Christmas had passed to Mia with the absence of her parents, who had been in some trip to Switzerland. They had sent her a very formal postcard not once mentioning her name in it, leading Mia to believe it was one of the massively printed postcards they always sent to their meaningless acquaintances). How nice of them, she had thought sarcastically when she had first seen it. Fortunately, Lulu had been around to decorate the Christmas tree with her and (unsuccessfully) bake cookies.

And as February was about to come to an end, Mia's birthday, on the 28th, approached. That fact hadn't particularly excited her until Elizabeth had started making plans to throw her a massive birthday party. To tell the truth, Mia had never had a real birthday party in her life. Lulu had always celebrated it with her, frequently seeming like the occasion itself was more important to her nanny than to herself. She surely cared more that her parents, who had only been around once or twice to celebrate it. So, this year, her birthday would be even more special because she would have her first party.

"I've already talked to the house elves. They agreed to provide us food and drinks," Elizabeth told her two days before her birthday, checking from a list. "And Lily took care of letting the other people know, so I think we're all set.

"You didn't have to do all this," Mia told her friends.

"Don't be silly. It is our duty to make sure you at least have at least one decent birthday party in your life," Lily told her.

"We should do this every year," Elizabeth suggested. "I like this whole planning-a-party thing. And it is a good source of entertainment."

Mia shrugged. "If that makes you happy…"

They eventually abandoned the panning to start with the tons of homework McGonagall had given them. The common room was practically empty as first years were the only ones with Friday afternoon free.

Eventually, someone entered the room through the portrait hole. "Everyone will remember the party for years! Your birthday will be a great way to end the month." They heard James Potter telling someone.

Birthday party. End of the month. February 28th. James was surely not taking to Mia, which meant someone else was planning a party in her birthday. She turned around slowly and saw James him standing with Sirius.

"Your birthday doesn't happen to be on February 28th, does it, Sirius?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah. How did you know?" Sirius said.

Mia looked at him incredulously. "You're joking, right?" Mia asked him coolly.

"Why would he be joking?" James asked back confused.

Lily got up and defensively put herself in front of Mia, who was also up at the moment. "Because," she started. "February 28th is her birthday as well, and _we_ are throwing a party for the Gryffindors."

"Oh boy!" Remus said, sitting by Elizabeth's's side along with Peter. This is going to be interesting.

"…even think of it! February 28th is MY party! With all the Gryffindors!" Sirius was shouting.

Elizabeth shook her head. "That's mature," she mumbled to Remus, who nodded.

The fight went on for several minutes, with Lily, Peter and Remus watching in disbelief.

"…you are such a goody two shoes!" Sirius told Mia.

"Take that back!" Mia shouted, looking extremely offended.

James joined the fight, stating that Sirius was right and Lily's shouts got even louder.

"They're going to kill each other," Peter whispered. "Weren't Sirius and Mia the ones fighting?"

Elizabeth got up. "This is stupid. It's just a party. We can work it so they'll share with no problem."

Remus thought for a moment and nodded. "I guess it's not a bad idea."

"Who's gonna tell them?" Peter inquired, hoping it was not him. Getting in the middle of that fight didn't seem a good idea to him.

Remus took a deep breath. "I can do it."

He approached the group and managed to shut both parts up after a few tries. He picked his words carefully while explaining their plan of a conjoint party. "You don't even have to be together," Remus stated. "You can simply be in opposite corners of the common room like two different parties in the same place. I think it is the fairest choice, guys."

There was a moment of silence that both Mia and Sirius spent weighing the pros and cons. It seemed like it was either that or a duel to decide who would take the whole thing.

"If there's no other choice," Mia said.

"Guess I'll have to suck it up," Sirius agreed reluctantly before taking a seat with James by one of the tables.

They glared at each other for a moment before Mia grabbed her things. "I don't feel like studying here," she said. "I'm going to the library."

---

Two days passed quickly, and the time for the party arrived. Nobody really cared whose party it was, to tell the truth – just as long as there was a reason for them to stay up late, it would be received with open arms.

An imaginary line had been drawn in the common room to separate Sirius's territory from Mia's and, so far, it had been religiously respected by the two. Lily and James also opted to stay on their respective best friends' side but Peter, Remus and Elizabeth had been circulating between both territories doing their 'diplomatic work', as the latter put it.

"As long as they stay on their side and we stay on ours, it will be fine," Lily told Elizabeth when she suggested a truce between the parts.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Right, you're just happy James isn't sticking around," she said. "He's really not that bad."

"Maybe to _you_," Lily replied.

Mia didn't say a word through all that. To tell the truth, she had been feeling a bit sorry for the way she had handled things with Sirius two days ago. It wasn't his fault he had been born in the same day as she had. It was actually sort of funny, all things considered. "I think maybe I was too hard on Sirius," she murmured to her friends. She looked at Elizabeth. "Maybe a truce wouldn't be such a bad idea."

The blonde girl smiled. "I knew you would see the light. Come on, let's make that truce," she said, pulling Mia behind her. Lily murmured something about joining them later – she was probably trying to avoid James Potter.

Mia and Elizabeth walked through the mob, the first being greeted by Marlene McKinnon and Mary MacDonald before they reached Sirius's territory. He was standing by the fireplace laughing with James about something. "…and he caught the snitch right in front of Yaxley's nose!" Quidditch, right. He stopped talking when he saw her coming with Elizabeth. "Mia," he acknowledged her with a nod. James, Remus and Peter quickly excused themselves by saying they had something to do and Elizabeth said she was meeting back with Lily, leaving the two alone.

"Sirius," she replied. "Happy Birthday. I wanted to apologise for that thing two days ago. I overreacted. I'm sorry."

He grinned slightly. "I also had my share in that. I'm sorry too," Sirius told her.

"Well then, let's shake our hands and forget this," Mia suggested.

"Couldn't say that better," he replied before they shook their hands in a gesture of peace. "Friends?" he asked, hoping she would say yes. "Let's face it: we have the same birthday and it is likely that we'll have to share our birthday parties from now on. We'd better be friends or this could turn into one big mess."

"That's a good point," Mia agreed nodding. "Friends, then. But promise me we won't let the fact my best friend hates your best friend's guts get in the way. Or that your best friend has such a hopeless crush in my best friend--"

"I get the point," he interrupted. As much as I'm concerned, our friendship will be unaffected by any Lily Evans/James Potter situation."

"Well, that does clear mind," she said. "So, had a nice birthday?"

"Better than those I spent at home," he told her. It was good, for a change, to have a birthday away from that hole he called a home. "But my parents made sure I received a nice book about the importance of blood status. I think I have bedside reading for the rest of the year," Sirius told her, sarcasm all over his voice. "What about you?"

"It was nice. My parents forgot my birthday… again. Not that it bothers me anymore. Still, Lulu, my nanny, sent me a postcard and loads of sweets," Mia said. "She has directly commanded me to rot my teeth."

"Too bad we can't pick our parents," Sirius concluded. "I'd switch mine with James' in a heartbeat. I spent Christmas with them and they are great!"

"I'd switch mine with Lulu," Mia told him.

"You're very close to that Lulu."

"Yeah, she's practically my mother… or some sort of protective older sister," Mia explained. "She would practically let me do anything when I was younger. She said that the best way for me to learn what I should and shouldn't do was by feeling it on my skin – if I got hurt, I would realize that it was probably not such a great idea to try again."

"Must be awesome," Sirius said. "My parents were all 'don't do this, don't do that'. And then they wonder I don't give a damn about what they say."

"Good thing you didn't," Mia told him. "No offense, but they sound awful."

Sirius laughed in disdain. "They are just as great as they sound. Tell you what, let's forget and go find everyone else."

She nodded and followed him. And years from then, in Mia's mind, that would be remembered as the day that changed everything – the first step to a larger future.

**A/N: Here is chapter two. I hope you liked it. Should I keep going and posting chapters?**


	3. Mia's Dark Day

Lulu was worried – it was April 21st. April 21st was not an easy date on Mia and this time Lulu wasn't there to take care of her.

Susan and Philip, Mia's parents, refused to even think of the meaning of that day and Lulu found that decision simply revolting. Maybe it was their way of coping, but it just didn't sound right. As it didn't sound right the fact that they had gotten even more distant from Mia after what had happened. She was just a little girl, grieving too. Lulu knew Mia felt somewhat like they blamed her – there was nothing to blame, nothing could have stopped it. April 21st had been the day Mia had lost Susan and Philip as parents for good. And the day when she had lost Belle.

April 21st was Mia's dark day. The day she would hide and keep herself from everybody; but also the day when she needed people the most.

So, Lulu decided to write to Mia's friends – they were what she needed the most that day, even though she didn't really know it.

---

At the breakfast table, Lily received a letter brought by a strange owl. It was not one of the owls from the post office, so it couldn't be her parents. She opened the envelope and removed a piece of parchment with a strange handwriting

_Dear Lily,_

_We haven't met in person but you have probably heard of me. I am Mia's nanny since she was born, Lulu._

_I'm writing this letter because I need your help. As may have already noticed, Mia is nowhere to be seen today._

Lily looked around. In fact, Mia was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't been in bed when she had left with Elizabeth to Breakfast but they assumed that, as it was Saturday, she had gone for an early walk. The blonde girl was a few feet away helping Peter with an essay that was to be delivered tomorrow, so Lily resumed reading, deciding to talk to Elizabeth later.

_April 21__st__ is a bad date for Mia, sort of like her dark day. Something terrible happened four years ago on this day, which makes it hard on her. I'm usually there for her, but I can't this year. That is why I am writing. She needs people she loves around her, she needs her friends, even though she doesn't think that way. So, please, find her and be there for her. That's all I am asking for._

_Love,_

_Lulu_

Lily stared at the envelope, unsure of what to do.

"Peter is hopeless," Elizabeth uttered, taking a set by her friend's side. "I explain him things over and over, he nods like he's getting it but then when he is supposed to start writing he just stares at me and asks me to explain again!"

Lily nodded absently and passed her Lulu's letter. "I think you should read this."

Elizabeth accepted the letter. "What is this?"

"Just read," Lily said as she looked around, hoping Mia would just show up and that whole 'dark day' thing was an exaggeration.

"Mia had never told us about this," Elizabeth murmured after she finished reading the letter. "April 21st… I wonder what happened."

"It's up to Mia if she wants to tell us or not," Lily stated, getting up. "I'll go look for her in the astronomy tower. It is where I would go if I wanted to be alone."

"I'll go look in the common room. I'll meet you in the astronomy tower later, okay?" Elizabeth said.

Lily nodded and proceeded to leave the Great Hall and climb up the main staircase. It took her less than ten minutes to realize that neither Mia not anybody else was not in the Astronomy tower. Disappointed, she returned to the entrance of the tower and there found Elizabeth waiting for her with James and Sirius.

"Anything?" Elizabeth asked anxiously.

"No. You told them?" Lily inquired in a slightly accusatory tone.

"Lulu said she needed her friends." She pointed at the two boys. "They are her friends."

"Let's be honest, Evans," James said. "The castle is a huge place – the more we are, the easier it will be to find her, especially if we split up. Remus stayed in the common room. He said he would warn us if she came there. One day of truce with us won't kill you."

Lily glared for a moment but quickly realized that was the right thing to do for her friend's sake. "Okay, we'll split. I'll take the sixth floor, the seventh floor and the towers," Lily declared.

"I can take the first three floors," James helped.

"I'm going to look in the other floors and the library," Elizabeth said.

"I guess that leaves the dungeons and the grounds for me," Sirius concluded.

"We'll meet in the common room in, let's say, four hours?" Lily suggested, receiving several nods of agreement. "If neither of us finds her, we should warn the teachers."

---

Sirius was wondering around the dungeons looking for Mia. He hoped she wasn't there, for her own good. The dungeons were the Slytherin's territory and he knew for a fact that some Slytherin were nasty – just look at his cousin Bellatrix.

"Aw, Cissy, isn't this your cousin?" a male voice asked behind him.

He turned around in a sudden movement to see Lucius Malfoy and his cousin Narcissa standing behind him. Speaking of nasty Slytherins…

"What are you doing down here, Sirius?" Narcissa asked.

"Nothing wrong, if that is what you're thinking," he answered calmly – there was no need to get in trouble now. Mia might need him.

"That would be surprising," Narcissa said with a laugh. "Pity you missed Christmas this year. Your parents invited Lucius too—"

"What a relief I wasn't there, then," Sirius interrupted her.

"You think you're a smartass, don't you, kid?" Malfoy asked venomously.

Narcissa coughed. "What I meant was that you should have seen your brother. He gave such a delightful speech about the motto of our family, you know, _toujours pur_… well, delightful for a ten-year-old, at least. Uncle Orion was so proud – he finds it so much easier to teach Regulus without you there. At least he is on the right way now, unlike you."

"Hanging with the half-blood, Lupin and those blood-traitors Potter and the Davis girl," Malfoy said, shaking his head. "Well, I guess all families have their rotten branches."

Sirius clutched his fists.

"Aren't you two supposed to be patrolling the third-floor corridor?" someone asked behind Lucius and Narcissa. Andromeda Black, Narcissa's older sister, who happened to be the Head-Girl, appeared out of the darkness. "Move before I give you detention."

The two glared at her before leaving her alone with Sirius. Andromeda sighed and looked at her younger cousin sympathetically. "You shouldn't listen to them, Sirius. You're free to hang out with whoever you want."

"I know," he murmured. "Is it true what they said about Regulus?"

Andromeda nodded sadly and they started to walk together. "Auntie Walburga has been making sure Bella drops by your place a lot. She's the one feeding these ideas to your brother, even more than Uncle Orion does."

"I hate Bella," he stated.

"Sometimes I do too," Andromeda confessed. "Sometimes I wish I was as brave as you are," she stated. "Just tell them to their faces to shove all these ideas up their arses but I just do that behind their backs – guess that's why I made Slytherin, because I can be cunning… Can you keep a secret for me Sirius?"

He nodded. She was probably the only family member he was willing to keep a secret for.

"Do you know Ted Tonks? The head boy?" she asked.

"Hufflepuff's keeper?" Sirius asked, receiving a nod in return.

She looked around for a moment and used her wand to cast a silencing charm around him. "We've been together for the last two years," she said. "Ted asked me to marry him after we graduate and I said I would. I guess that will be my way to tell our family to go to hell. I reckon they will disown me before my honeymoon is over. So, what do you think?"

Sirius smiled up at her. "I think I was right to have you as my favourite cousin," he stated. "Send me a post card from the honeymoon, will you?"

Andromeda grinned. "You were always my favourite cousin too," she told him. "What were you doing here in the dungeons, anyway?"

He suddenly remembered he was supposed to be looking for Mia. "I was looking for friend. Mia Davis."

"Hum, the brunette girl who usually sits next to you in the Great Hall?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's her," he said. "Have you seen her?"

"Yeah, she was sitting by the lake earlier," Andromeda told him. "She didn't seem too happy…"

"Have I mentioned you are my favourite cousin?" he said, thanking Merlin for having run into Andromeda.

"Yep. Just a minute ago," she said. "Go on after her. I'll see you later."

He nodded and ran outside to find Mia, hoping whatever that 'dark-day' was about was fixable.

---

Andromeda had told him the truth. Mia was sitting by the lake. Her eyes were directed to the water, but he could tell she wasn't looking at it. Her mind was elsewhere.

After a quick detour to the owlery in order to send a note to the other saying he had found Mia, Sirius walked slowly in Mia's direction. She didn't notice him until he sat by her side.

"Go away," she whispered. "I'm not in the mood to talk."

"According to what your nanny wrote in her letter to Lily, I'm not supposed to," he told her. "She mentioned something about a 'dark day'."

"Lulu should mind her own business," Mia said bitterly.

"I, for once, think it is a really nice thing for her to do," Sirius stated. "I wish my parents would worry about me the way she worries about you. According to what my cousin just said, they want me as far away as possible so they can corrupt my brother."

"I'm sorry," she murmured. They stood silent for several minutes. Until Mia let out a sigh when she saw he wasn't leaving. "I used to have a sister, you know?" she confessed.

He turned his face to her in surprise. "You _used to_?"

"Used to," she confirmed. "Her name was Isabelle, Belle for short. She died exactly four years ago, on her birthday."

Despite the shock of the revelation, Sirius kept a straight face and simply nodded. "So that is what the 'dark-day' is about."

"Don't call it 'dark-day'. Today was my sister's birthday, it's not dark. It's just the day that I use to grieve. Belle was my best friend – she was less than one year younger than me. My parents were never around, so Lulu and Belle were all I had after gran died. She was turning seven in the day she died and my parents were away, so it was just the three of us. Belle and I were playing out in the garden and Lulu was watching us. Then, everything happened so fast: one moment she was laughing and the other she was out cold on the ground. I thought she was kidding or something but then Lulu and I saw she wasn't reacting at all. She was dead even before she reached St. Mungos. It was an aneurism; there was nothing we or the healers could do. They said she was lucky she had reached that age."

"Mia—" Sirius started.

"I was miserable for months," Mia interrupted him. "My best friend, my sister, had dropped dead out in front of me. My parents barely reacted – they _never _mention her. I think they blame me, somehow. They were closer to Belle than they were to me. Sometimes I wonder if they wish I was the one dead. Lulu made me snap out of it eventually but when her birthday comes, I just can't… not think of her. This year wasn't as bad – maybe it is because I'm not in the place where that actually happened or maybe I'm just forgetting…"

"You're not forgetting, you're just healing," Sirius told her "If I was your sister, seeing how close you were, I'd want you to heal. I wouldn't want you to spend an entire day mourning."

Mia looked at him, her bright brown eyes were filled with tears. "Thanks for listening," she said.

"And you were the one who wanted me to leave," Sirius told her.

"I was wrong," she admitted. "And about your brother… don't give up trying to protect him. The people you love can leave you so suddenly you wouldn't believe."

"I'll take that into account," he promised. "And just so you know, next year, in April 21st, I'll catch you before you can disappear on us."

She smiled in return. "Thank you."

**Just got the chapter back from my beta and thought you might want to read it. You know, a little feedback wouldn't be so bad... Reviews are more than welcome. Should I change something?**


	4. A Talk by the Lake

One year passed in a rush, bringing a few changes with it. Sirius' brother, Regulus started his first year in Hogwarts but was sorted to Slytherin, to his brother's displeasure. However, keeping in mind Mia's advice in the previous year, Sirius didn't just ostracize him, making an effort to be there for him as much as he could.

These days, Lily 'hated' James more than ever, especially because of the fact that Snape was the main victim of James and Sirius's new habit of cursing Slytherins in the hallways.

Despite that new habit of his and his increasing popularity, Sirius had kept his promise to spend her 'dark day' with her.

"I think it is stupid, to be honest," Mia told Sirius, referring the mentioned habit, as the two sat by the lake. "I mean, what's the fun of cursing people?"

"I dunno, it's just fun," he said, shrugging. "But you should see it when Snape or Ned Remington are on the other ends of the curse. Snape just glares but I swear I heard Remington squealing when we threw him a tickling charm. You have to admit he is a horse's arse."

Mia tried not to smile but didn't succeed. "Okay, so he is a bit annoying…"

"A bit? He thinks he is the king of the whole school, the pompous git," Sirius told her. "Almost worse than bloody Lucius Malfoy was!"

She gave up. "Fine, I can't stand him. I can't see how anyone does," she said. "But changing the subject, I've been meaning to ask you something for a while. What are the 'Marauders'?"

Sirius stared at her in disbelief. "How do you know about that?"

"I heard you and James saying something about them during Charms," she quickly explained. "You're not as discreet as you think. Thank Merlin Lily was too busy telling Elizabeth how to do the spell for the two of them to hear. But really, who are these 'Marauders'?"

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you this," he stated.

"Oh, come on, Sirius!" she insisted. "I promise I won't breathe a word to anyone. I'll even make an unbreakable vow if you want."

"Are you insane?" he asked her in disbelief. "Don't you ever make one of those! You can die!"

Mia rolled her eyes. "I was kidding," she said. "You know you can tell me. I swear I won't tell a soul."

He sighed. "Alright," Sirius agreed. "So, Marauders is a name the guys and I came up with for ourselves."

She raised an eyebrow at Sirius. "You guys gave yourselves a name?" Mia asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. What's the problem?" He inquired defensively.

"Just seems a bit strange to me," she told him. "But hey, your group, your rules." Mia leaned against the tree, looking at the lake. "Just it's a little… odd."

"Odd?" Sirius asked in disbelief. "Okay, maybe we should change the subject."

"Alright, alright. So, what is it I hear you having a five feet long waiting list for dates to Hogsmeade next year?" Elizabeth had mentioned that to her earlier that week and Mia had been a little surprise – and, unexplainably, disturbed – by that.

Sirius chuckled. "Please, that's just a rumour," he said naturally. "Just between us, the list is actually six feet long."

She gave him an indignant look. He couldn't be doing that. "Are you joking?" Sure, Sirius Black was a flirt but not _that _much of a player. He was just thirteen, for Merlin's sake!

He made an effort to look serious but didn't succeed, instantly braking in laugher. "Of course I am!" he said. "You'll believe anything, won't you? Six feet long waiting list… That's just something James made up as a joke, which, by the way, has made me a girl magnet. Wouldn't it be a bother if I actually liked one of these girls and had to clear the whole waiting list to be her exclusive?"

"A real bother," she replied sarcastically.

"No long-time tying for me now. I mean, better fool around while I can, right?" he asked.

She coughed uncomfortably. "Right."

He got up. "Come on, I'm sick of sitting in here. Let's take a walk," he suggested, giving her his hand to help pulling her up.

She accepted the hand gladly. "So, I've been meaning to ask, how the family?"

"Wonderful," he said sarcastically. "They couldn't be happier that my cousin Bellatrix married Rodolphus Lestrange, a pure-blood of the greatest pedigree. Not to mention that I heard she's now affiliated with the cause of some creep who hates muggles and muggle-borns. He calls himself Lord Voldemort. You have no idea how much my parents adore him."

"He does match his ideas," Mia pointed out. "I heard of him before. I heard my parents talking about him when they were at home this Easter. Apparently, the ministry suspects he might be behind some muggle-supporters' disappearances that happened last summer – my parents are in charge of his case with a few other aurors."

Sirius nodded silently and they started to walk around the lake together. "How does it feel this year? The thing with your sister."

Mia shrugged. "I dunno. I guess you were right – I'm healing. The tingle is still there but I guess this is as good as it gets. I'm trying not to think about her much."

"Well, I'm glad you're dealing better," he said. "So, what do you say we do this again next year? Maybe I'll get to teach you how to fly a broomstick."

She stopped walking and looked at him with her eyes wide open. "Please, don't. Lulu tried to teach me once but crashed into a tree and almost broke my neck."

Sirius had to make a big effort to keep himself from laughing, succeeding this time. "You can't be that bad."

"I can't ride a broom to save my own life," she assured him. "I saw you and James trying to teach Peter the other week and, believe me, I'm a lot worse."

"Well, that's just sad," he said in disappointed tone. "Pete could barely keep his arse in the air!"

"See how pathetic I am," she told him with a laugh. "Hum, so is this how you plan to get girls? 'Let me teach you how to play Quidditch'. Because, let me warn you, you'll be able to use your fingers to count the ones that strategy will get you."

He gave her a mock-hurt look. "Why would need I strategies if I was born with such charms and flirting qualities? I mean, you can serve as a witness that spending time with me is not horribly boring. It is actually very well-spent time. Confess it Mia, I have it all without the getting-girls strategies."

Mia blushed slightly and turned her face so Sirius wouldn't notice it. "I've had worse mornings," she admitted. "But you need to work on the subjects to talk about. Not many girls will be willing to discuss how funny your pranks might be or something of that sort."

He gave her one of his dazing smiles. That was why he liked to spend time with her – she was probably the only girl who would tell him things right in the face. And suddenly, he really couldn't tell why, he took one step in her direction and his lips touched hers in a kiss.

Mia froze for a fraction of a second, but instinctively respond. _How the hell did this happen?_ She asked herself. But she didn't really didn't care because she was kissing Sirius. Her brain was in standby mode until their lips parted.

They looked at each other, wide eyed for a moment as if asking 'Did that just happen?'

"Er… let's keep walking," Sirius suggested, feeling extremely awkward.

She nodded, still slightly shocked. "That seems like a good idea." The silence didn't help. It really didn't help her when she came to a conclusion that, honestly, she felt stupid for not reaching earlier. Maybe it had been the kiss that had served as her wake-up call. The fact was that she knew now that she had a crush in Sirius Black. And she hoped that neither that not the kiss would ruin their friendship.

---

Third year arrived in a heartbeat. As time passed, the kiss was 'forgotten', or at least that was what Sirius and Mia wanted each other to think. The truth was that it had been kind of stuck in their memories ever since but they never dared to even mention it, afraid that would somewhat ruin their friendship. They were back to the whole close friends things they had since first year.

By the end of October, the date for the first Hogsmeade visit was set to the first weekend of November. Sirius immediately found himself with half a dozen candidates to be his date and ended up choosing Samantha Lawrence from Ravenclaw.

James, who after being selected as Chaser to the Gryffindor Quidditch team had gained a whole new status in the school, asked Lily to be his date to Hogsmeade every single day of the week that followed the announcement of the visit, being rejected every time. Instead, Lily was spending the visit with Severus, so he wouldn't be all alone during their first visit to the village. She had promised Mia and Elizabeth next time she would spend the whole visit with them.

"It is depressing, you know," Elizabeth stated as the two of them sat alone by a table in the Three Broomsticks. "Coming to Hogsmeade without a date. Even Lily has one."

"Snape is not her date. She just came with him because it was either that or he would be alone the whole time. Not to mention how much it will irritate James Potter. And you shouldn't be complaining," Mia said. "Didn't Ned Remington ask you for a date?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she took a sip from her butterbeer. "Like I would ever go on a date with Remington, of all people. He's annoying. Besides, he was just trying to get me to come with him because Black had a date too and you know how ridiculously competing Remington can be."

"I know, I'm just saying that at least someone asked you," Mia said. "Nobody asked _me_. I'm starting to think I'm invisible or something."

Elizabeth laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course you're not invisible. Black notices you. You guys talk all the time."

"He notices me as a friend," she said. _But that doesn't explain the kiss, _she thought. She hadn't told anyone about that. Why would she? He was one of the most popular boys in the year. She was just one of his friends, who nobody knew. That made him completely out of her bounds.

She turned to the window and frowned at the sight. Secluded in the alley in front of the pub, she could see none other than Sirius Black making out with his date. She looked away, suddenly feeling a bit jealous. _Completely out of bounds_, she reminded herself. Of all the alleys in the village… They had probably been too distracted to care if they could seen by anyone, including professors, in the pub.

"Oh, get a room," Elizabeth mumbled, looking at the scene. She turned back to Mia in order to resume their conversation. "Anyway, the boys haven't started 'the hunt' yet. Most of them still think 'girls are icky'." She nodded at the window. "I guess Black is an exception."

Mia fought back a frown. "Guess he is," she sighed.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at her friend and then at Sirius's shadow outside kissing his date. She chocked in her butterbeer when she realized the truth. "Merlin's pants… you have a thing for Black. Wait until Lily hears this!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Mia said, too quickly to sound believable.

"Then why are you all touchy because he is kissing Samantha Lawrence?" Elizabeth asked. "Come on, it's not that bad. I think you would look cute together."

"Stop it, Elizabeth!" she demanded in a stern tone, starting to feel annoyed. She regretted using that tone when she noticed that Elizabeth looked a bit hurt. "Look, even if I liked him, we both know this wouldn't lead anywhere."

"Why not?" her friend asked. "You are free healthy individuals that are not related. I mean, not that it matters to me but both of you are pure-bloods. Not even his family can complain."

She chuckled sarcastically. "He sees me as a friend, nothing more. I'd rather be his friend that the silly girl who had a crush on him and was rejected. Plus, we're only thirteen!"

Elizabeth shrugged. "Whatever you say, Mia, but you are making up excuses. I say if you have a thing for him, go for it. I'm going to the bathroom. Think about it while I am gone."

Mia did. But all she could think about was how wrong things could turn.

**A/N: Here is another chapter. Only one review so far. I'd like some feedback, people. It is not that difficult to send, really.**


	5. Quidditch Jitters

Fifth year arrived in a rush.

Since that Hogsmeade weekend when she had seen Sirius and his date snogging, Mia had decided to dedicate herself to forget him. She had too much to lose – their friendship was too precious to be destroyed because of a crush. She had been on a couple of dates to Hogsmeade, the last one with Davey Gudgeon from Ravenclaw, which had been an absolute disaster, with his ex-girlfriend showing up and throwing a fit.

Sirius's plan was similar. To get forget the kiss he had shared with Mia (which, despite it having occurred almost two years ago, was revealing itself to be a difficult task), he had been dating as many girls as he could and snogging even more.

The Quidditch tryouts had been around a month ago. Sirius had joined the Gryffindor team as a Chaser and, to everyone's surprise, Elizabeth had not only taken part on the tryouts, but had also been selected to be the team's Seeker. Mia had never imagined before that Liz could be _that _good flying a broomstick but, apparently, she was wrong.

In the day before the first game, Mia, Lily and Elizabeth were in the common room in an unsuccessful attempt to finish their homework. The urge to talk was too strong.

"… I'm going to the game but _just_ because you're playing," Lily told Elizabeth. "It's already annoying having Potter asking me out every day of the week, but when he does it right after winning a Quidditch game, he gets extra insistent. Potter can be so infuriating."

"Maybe he won't ask you out this time," Mia suggested.

Elizabeth laughed. "Yeah, and I'm a flying troll," she mumbled. "You could just say 'yes' one day. Maybe he'd be so shocked he would faint."

"Right, and what if he doesn't?" Lily inquired. "I'd be stuck in a date with him. I have better things to do than _that_," she said coldly.

"What would be better than going on a date with me, Evans?" a familiar voice asked all of a sudden.

Lily covered her face with her hands in frustration, already knowing who it was. "Go away, Potter," she groaned.

Instead, James took a seat by her side. "Come on, I'm not that bad."

The redhead girl huffed and packed her things. "I'm leaving," she announced, getting up and climbing up the stairs to her dorm.

Sirius, who had been a few feet behind James, occupied Lily's seat, by Mia's side. "Just give up, mate," he advised his best friend. "Evans is a lost cause."

"Not until I say so," James mumbled, getting up. "Well, we should get you-know-what from upstairs. Remus and Pete are waiting. You coming?"

Sirius shook his head 'no'. He knew very well that 'you-know-what' was James's invisibility cloak. "I'll just stay and keep the ladies some company," he said. "You go ahead."

The raven-haired boy shrugged and proceeded to go to his dorm.

"He's never gonna give up, is he?" Mia asked when she saw James was already gone.

He laughed. "I doubt it. You can never say James Potter is not a perseverant bloke. I'm starting to believe one of these days we'll be attending their wedding."

"Well, wouldn't that be ironic?" Elizabeth said.

---

In the following day, Mia woke up early in order to finish her homework. Hopefully, now that everyone was asleep she would be able to finish her transfiguration assignment quickly and still have some time to relax.

However, in the moment she stepped into the common room, she saw she was not alone.

"Hey," Sirius greeted her. He was sitting on an armchair, fully awake, reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_.

"Hi," she replied, wondering why he was up do early. "Couldn't sleep?"

He nodded. "Seems like I'm a more little nervous to my first Quidditch game than I predicted," he told her. "Elizabeth doesn't happen to be the same way, does she?"

Mia shook her head. "That one can sleep all day long if Lily and I don't shake her awake. We actually had to check if she was breathing once or twice…"

"Lucky her," he mumbled, feeling a little frustrated. "What about you? Why are you up so early?"

Mia blushed. "I need to finish my Transfiguration homework."

"But it is Sunday," he pointed out. "You have the whole day to do that."

"I don't want to be bothered during the game," she explained. "Besides, it's not that much. I just need to write the conclusion and revise it. I was just hoping for some quiet while I do it."

"Well, then, I'm leaving you alone," he said, starting to get up.

She shook her head immediately. "No, you don't have to go. You won't bother me. I'm not kicking you out or anything."

He smiled. "Relax, I didn't think you were kicking me out. I'm just going to take a shower," Sirius told her. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes or so."

"Oh, okay" she replied, feeling silly. Sirius Black wouldn't just leave the room if she said so. He was, after all, Sirius Black.

With him gone, Mia managed to get to work. The quiet seemed to go as expected and the ideas flowed easily onto the parchment. Ten minutes later she had finished the writing part and started revising the text.

"Didn't finish it yet?" Sirius asked when he came back to the common room.

"Just a minute," she said, tapping the last misspelled word with her wand. "I'm done!" She looked up and saw him standing two feet away from her. Her heat skipped a beat – she couldn't help admiring how nice he looked with his hair still wet from the shower. _Just stop thinking of it!_ She ordered herself. At that rate, she would never be able to forget him.

"Why don't you go put your books back in your dorm and we have some breakfast?" he suggested.

Mia raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it too early?" She looked at the clock on the wall, which indicated it was still 7 o'clock.

"Not to us," he said with a mischievous smile. "Hurry up and I'll show you something wicked."

Curious, she quickly went up the stairs to her dorm, leaving the books carelessly on top of her bed. As she came back down, Mia wondered if they would end up kissing again. Merlin, she missed it. _You can't, he's your friend, _a rational part of her head told her. Mia huffed, stepping back into the common room where Sirius was still waiting.

He led her to the main staircase and they descended to the ground floor, not finding a single person on their way – everyone was likely still in their dorms. When they arrived to the entrance hall, Sirius guided her to a door on the right side of the main staircase. They descended another staircase and started walking through a corridor whose walls were covered in paintings of food.

"Where are we going?" she asked. She had never been in that hallway. Where was he taking her?

"We are almost there," he simply said.

The keep walking through the corridor until a giant painting of a bowl of fruit came to their view.

"Now, watch this," Sirius said. He touched the painting and seemed to tickle the pear.

"What are you…" Mia couldn't finish the question as suddenly a doorknob appeared of nowhere and he used it to open the painting like it was a door, letting Mia enter first. "Oh my…" Mia said when she saw what was inside. They were in the kitchens. The room was enormous, just as big as the great hall. Hundreds of house-elves were working by very large tables, which seemed to be placed right behind the house tables.

"Nice, isn't it?" Sirius asked. "Me and the guys found out how to get here in our third year. We sneak here sometimes when we are hungry."

"It's brilliant!" Mia said.

"Mr. Sirius! Mr. Sirius!" A house-elf shouted when he saw Sirius "Dumpty is glad to see you in here."

"Hi Dumpty, this is my friend, Mia. Could you bring us something to eat?" he asked politely.

The house-elf nodded repeatedly. "Sure, Mr. Sirius. Sit in that table right there, on the corner. Humpy will bring the food there."

"Thank you," Mia said, impressed.

"Humpy's pleasure, Miss Mia," Dumpty said, bowing in a typical house-elf fashion, leaving Mia a little confused – she had never actually seen an house-elf before.

She followed Sirius to the table they had been indicated and the two of them sat on two chairs by it waiting for their food.

"I had no idea Hogwarts had this many house-elves," she stated, looking around.

Sirius nodded. "It's not strange you thought that. We barely ever see them working – they are always down here. I wish Kreacher was half has nice as these elves," he mumbled

"Kreacher? Wait, you have a house-elf?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Sirius confirmed. "He's such a pest! I remember him being nice when I was a little kid but then he saw I wasn't really up to the pureblood crap my parents are always trying to feed me and just started seeing me as 'Public Enemy Number One'."

"I see you two have a wonderful relationship," Mia said sarcastically.

He chuckled moments before Dumpty showed up with their breakfast. They continued talking while they ate, mostly about their lives outside of school – the fact that both of them had not-so-good families made it easy for them to understand each other. Sirius eventually told Mia about Regulus having been completely 'brainwashed' by their parents and practically refusing to talk to him these days.

Sooner than they could notice, it was 10 o'clock – half an hour before the game was to start. They left the kitchens together and walked to the entrance hall, where several students stood talking after leaving the great hall from breakfast.

"Well, I have to go," he stated. "Parker wants to give us the usual briefing before the game."

"Beat them dead," Mia said.

"I'm a chaser," he stated. "I can only score them dead."

Mia laughed. "Alright, you do it, then!"

Unexpectedly, he gave her a small kiss on the cheek. "Just for good luck," he said before leaving to the pitch.

Mia stood in the entrance hall watching him go. She bit her lower lip and touched her cheek. She couldn't get why she was feeling so shaken up by a good luck kiss – it had been just a little peck on the cheek…

"There you are!" she heard Lily's voice saying from behind her, interrupting her thoughts. Mia lowered her hand from her face and turned around to see her standing there with Remus and Elizabeth.

"Where have you been?" Elizabeth inquired. "You missed breakfast and I was starting to think I wouldn't see you before the game."

"I'm sorry," Mia apologised. "I woke up early and Sirius did too, so we just hang out together."

"Oh, alright then," Elizabeth said. "I've got to go to the pitch. See you later."

"Good luck!" they wished. Elizabeth waved one last time after disappearing through the castle's doors.

Remus coughed and spoke for the first time. "So, you and Sirius were hanging out all this time?"

Mia nodded. "He was pretty nervous about the game, so we just talked about our families and other stuff. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing," Remus stated. "It's just that you're probably the only girl he actually talks to, you know?"

She laughed. "Are you kidding me? He dates a different girl every week? How can I possibly be the only girl he talks to?"

"You don't need to talk in order to snog," Lily pointed out. "I think Remus means that you are the only girl he talks about things that matter."

Remus nodded. "That's exactly what I meant," he stated. "And, I mean, he barely talks about his family with us, you know? But he talks to you about them."

"That's big," Lily pointed out.

_It i__s big,_ Mia agreed in thought. She had never realized how… important she was to him. Telling her stuff he didn't even tell his best friends. "You're overreacting," she said dismissively. She didn't want them to think too much of it. "He just knows that I understand because my family is not perfect either. Let's just go to the game, alright?"

She sped in front of them, not giving them the chance to reply.

**A/N: So, tomorrow I have this very important presentation but it seems like all I have been doing is writing and writing and writing this. So, well, wish me luck. And leave some reviews, please. Feed my addiction.**


	6. One Hell of a Headache

"Good Morning everyone," Ludo Bagman, Hufflepuff's beater, who was serving as commenter for the day, said. "Welcome to the first game of the season, Gryffindor vs Slytherin. In the Gryffindor team we have Harper, Potter, Black, McKinnon, Price, Frobisher and Hooper. From Slytherin we have Black, Rosier, Wilkes, Vaisey, Urquhart, Mulciber and Avery. Captains: Price and Vaisey. Good luck players!"

Mia was sitting with Lily, Remus and Peter by her side, watching as the players entered the field. She could see Sirius chatting with James as they mounted their brooms.

"So, the Slytherin's seeker, he is Sirius's brother, isn't he?" Lily asked

"Yeah, that's Regulus," Mia confirmed. "Sirius mentioned he was selected to the team this year. Let's hope Elizabeth is faster than he is."

The referee released the Quaffle and the game started. It seemed to run really fast, with the teams scoring every minute – less than half an hour later, the results were 230-80 with Gryffindor winning, much of the points having been achieved by Sirius and James.

Elizabeth was chasing the snitch, Regulus only a few inches behind her until one of the Slytherin Chasers, Rosier, 'accidentally' crashed into her with his broom, causing her to almost fall, which was enough for Regulus to surpass her.

"That little…! What is the referee doing?! She could have gotten hurt!" Lily protested from her seat as Elizabeth rejoined the chase but was too far behind to keep Regulus from catching the golden sphere. However, he hadn't noticed that, seconds before he has touched the snitch, Sirius had scored once more, causing Slytherin to lose for 240-230.

The Gryffindors in the stadium shouted in celebration while the Slytherins started to leave. Still on the air, James and Sirius were trying to cheer Elizabeth, who was upset for having lost the snitch to Regulus, even though they had won the game anyway. While the three descended and landed on the ground, they didn't see Avery, one of the Slytherin beaters, angrily hitting one of the Bludgers with his bat, sending it right in Sirius's direction.

"SIRIUS, LOOK OUT!" Mia yelled watching the whole from her seat. But it was too late. The Bludger hit Sirius right on the head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Terrified, Mia sped through the celebrating mob, so she could reach the game field, Remus and Lily running behind her and also Peter, not as fast as the others. The gate leading to the field was locked, so she blew the lock using her wand – who cared about detention, right now?

It took her only a few seconds to reach Sirius's unconscious body on the floor. She kneeled by his side, opposite from James and Elizabeth.

"Someone call Madam Pomfrey!" Elizabeth yelled at the other players.

Mia sighed in relief for a moment when she saw he was still breathing and looked up for a moment to see if the school matron was coming – she saw Regulus Black a few yards away, looking worriedly at his older brother. Mia looked down at Sirius again. "Sirius, are you listening to me? SIRIUS!" She called, shaking him.

"Come on, man!" James said, his face pale as a sheet. "Talk to us!"

"Let me through! Let me through!" Madam Pomfrey was asking the mob that had formed around them. "I need space to examine Mr. Black!"

Someone pulled Mia up carefully by one arm – it was Lily. "Let Madam Pomfrey take care of him," her friend whispered.

"Is he going to be alright?" Mia asked the matron. Her heart was beating so fast she thought she would faint. _Please say he will be fine. Please say he will be fine._

"I need to take Mr. Black to the Hospital Wing. I can only assure you of that later," Madam Pomfrey said as she conjured a stretcher to take Sirius to the Hospital Wing.

Everything happened really fast after that – her mind only registered Lily and Remus pulling her away from the mob and following the levitating stretcher to the Hospital Wing. Deep in her mind, she could also remember Professor Slughorn yelling at Avery on their way to the dungeons.

"Detention, for the rest of the year!" he had said.

---

Hours later, Mia sat on a long bench by the Hospital Wing's entrance along with the other Marauders. The Quidditch team had also been there earlier but they had been sent to the common room by McGonagall a few hours later. Mia and the Marauders had refused to leave and the teacher hadn't protested much – she could recognize a lost battle.

When the Hospital Wing's door opened and Madam Pomfrey made her way out, Mia's heart jumped violently. They hadn't heard a word from her ever since the accident.

"How is he?" James asked.

The Matron sighed. "Mr. Black will be alright. I suppose he will have quite a headache when he wakes up but I guess we have to thank his hard head for not having anything worse. You can go see him in pairs. He should be waking up soon."

Remus coughed and turned to them. "Would you mind if I went first? I have patrol with Lily later. I'll only stay a few minutes."

"Sure. Pete, you can go too. I saw the pile of homework you have to do," James said, causing Peter to shiver. James turned to Mia. "You don't mind going later, do you? We have better chances of seeing him awake."

"Okay," Mia agreed. She was just too relieved to care. _He's okay. He'll be fine._ She repeated that mantra over and over in her head.

"…are you hearing me?" James asked, waving his hand in front of her eyes. "Davis? Mia?"

"Hum?" She looked up to see him stating with an eyebrow raised. "Oh, what did you say?"

"I said you seemed quite worried about Sirius," James said.

"A Bludger hit him on the head. Of course I was worried," she replied sternly. "It could have broken his neck!"

"I know that," he said in frustration. "I just meant that not even a single one of the girls he's dated has bothered to come by but you haven't left for a second. You care about him, don't you? I mean _really_ care."

Mia was surprised for a moment – she had never taken James Potter to be such an observant person. "Yes," she murmured after a moment of silence.

"I thought so," James said. "Look, I probably shouldn't be telling you this but Sirius doesn't see you as just any other girl."

"Really?" Mia asked dubiously.

He nodded. "That's one step ahead of all the others," he pointed out. "Look, he likes to snog every female thing that breathes – okay, maybe nor every single thing – but Remus reckons he'll get over it eventually. My advice is step into his way when he does get over it."

She raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Are you trying to fix me up with Sirius?"

He coughed and looked away. "I'm just doing my job as his best mate. And by the way, if this advice does work, tell Sirius I get to be his best man _and _godfather of you guys' firstborn."

Mia laughed. "Marriage and kids… You're getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you?"

"Early bird catches the worm," he pointed out just as the infirmary's door opened and Remus exited, following by Peter.

"He's not awake yet. Say 'hi' for us when he wakes up," Remus said before Mia and James entered the Hospital Wing.

---

Two hours later, Sirius was still asleep. Madam Pomfrey had assured them it was nothing to worry and that he would wake up when he was ready. It had been a relief for Mia to notice that Madam Pomfrey had made her job healing his injuries and that he looked like nothing had happened at all as he slept.

James had needed to go to the common room in order to change from his Quidditch robes into something else, promising to come back in a few minutes. It was just moments after he had left that Sirius finally showed signs of waking up.

He groaned and shut his eyes harder.

"Sirius? Sirius, are you awake?" she asked expectantly.

There was something about Mia's voice being the first thing he heard after waking up. Despite his monumental headache, Sirius couldn't help noticing how great it felt. He opened one eye to see her looking down at him worriedly.

"How do you feel?" she inquired, touching his arm. It sent shivers though his whole body – had the damn Bludger caused brain damage or something?

"Like I was hit by a Bludger on the head," he replied, his voice sort of funny because of his dry throat.

"Well, that's what happened," she pointed out.

"Do you mind chopping my head off and throw it away? 'Cause it hurts like hell."

"Sorry, I can't," she told him. "They'd send me to Azkaban. But let me fetch Madam Pomfrey. She has potions for the pain."

"Guess that will work," he stated, closing his eyes again.

It took Mia a couple of minutes to get the school matron, who insisted on examining Sirius before she gave him any potions. She gave him one of her stern looks when he protested and threatened to keep him in the Hospital Wing an extra couple of days than he was supposed to. In the end, Madam Pomfrey declared Sirius 'as healthy as he could be, considering' and gave him the potion.

"Blah, that tasted like troll's vomit," he said, utterly disgusted as he sat up straighter on the bed.

"Would you rather have the headache?" She inquired with an eyebrow raised and sighed. "I tried to warn you, about the Bludger."

"I heard, but it was kind of too late," he said. "When I noticed, I was hearing my skull--"

"Please, don't finish that sentence," she interrupted him, sitting on the edge of this bed. "I thought you were dead, when it hit you. Who'd show me cool secret passages and places in the castle if you were dead?"

"It takes more than a Bludger to kill me," he said. "And I'm sure you'd find all these places by yourself."

Mia leaned closer to him and wrapped her arms around him. He didn't hesitate hugging her back and it felt wonderful – it was surprising how a simple friendly gesture could feel so good. "Who would I talk to about my stupid parents?" she mumbled against his shoulder.

"Lily or Elizabeth," he replied, unconsciously taking in the sweet smell of her hair. "They are your best friends."

"They have nice families. They wouldn't understand. You do. Just promise me you'll use a helmet next time you play," she murmured, still not letting go.

He grinned like an idiot. She cared – she really cared. That was one of the reasons why he loved to have her around. "It's sort of against the rules for any player but the keeper to wear a helmet. But I promise I will be careful."

Someone coughed a few feet away. They let go of each other and turned to see James standing there raising an eyebrow.

"Unbelievable," he said as he approached the bed. "You were planning it, weren't you, Padfoot? Waiting for me to leave just so you can impress the girl by waking up and get to feel her up."

"She's prettier than you are," Sirius told him with a smirk, causing Mia to blush. "And I wasn't feeling her up. We were sharing a respectful friendly hug. Isn't that right?"

Mia nodded. "No feeling up at all," she confirmed.

"Alright, alright," James said, pulling a chair to the side of the bed and sitting there. "If that's your excuse…"

**A/N: Hope you liked the chapter - my beta is away, so blame me for any mistakes. I was going to post yesterday night but my older sister showed up and made me babysit her kids so she could go out to celebrate her aniversary - well, let's just say my other siblings (and my DAD!) have done a bunk on me and I had to watch over a crazy six year old and and a five-week-old by myself. One comment: Maggie (my older sister) owes me her soul. Leave a review, people. It's just click the button behind this note. Feedback makes me happy.**


	7. A Stupid Prank

June arrived, bringing the OWLs.

Mia exited the common room early – she had decided to use the morning to study in the library, mostly because she had nothing else to do: Lily would be spending the day with Snape and Elizabeth, well, considering it was a Saturday, would most likely sleep until lunch time.

Mia entered a secret passage Sirius had once shown her that lead to the forth floor. The way though it was only faintly illuminated by a few lamps, causing Mia to feel sort of agitated when she was in it. Suddenly, she started hearing voices… a whispered argument. She wondered if she should go on or just turn back.

"… _he could have died, Padfoot! What were you thinking?"_ The voice sounded familiar to Mia but she couldn't really recognize it. She had heard the name _Padfoot _before. The curiosity was too much and she just kept walking, hoping whoever was in the secret passage wouldn't notice her.

"_I never thought he would be stupid enough to actually go there!" _Another familiar voice said. This one, Mia recognized immediately – it was Sirius. Of course… she had heard James calling him Padfoot once.

"_You should have thought better!__ I could have killed him! Damn it! Can't you use your brains for something other than snogging girls or pranking people?!" _A third voice said.

Mia started hearing steps in her direction but she knew it was too late to run. Seconds later, Remus's form came out of the darkness. She saw him shudder when he saw her.

"Remus, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hear…" she stated but then she noticed how he looked – pale, exhausted, sick. There were large shadows under his eyes like he hadn't slept for weeks. "Oh, Merlin, are you alright? What happened to you? You need to go to the Hospital Wing."

Lupin shook his head. "That is where I am coming from," he said. "How much did you hear?"

"Not much. Just that Sirius did something bad. What did he do?" she asked.

Remus shook his head. "It's complicated," he told her. He looked around. "I'm not sure this is the right place…"

"There is an empty classroom right outside this passage if we turn back," she offered. "Come on. You look like you need someone to talk to."

He sighed. She was right, he needed someone to talk to. But he would have to tell her about his 'furry little problem' to get to what had happened in the previous night. Remus followed her to the empty classroom, unable to just tell her 'no'.

They entered and he sat by one of the desks, Mia pulling a chair to sit in front of him.

"So, what did he do?" she inquired.

"I need to tell you something before I get to that part," he told her. "I'm just not sure how you will react…"

"What do you mean?" she inquired in confusion. "Is it bad?"

He nodded. "I…" he started. There was no way around it. He just had to say it. "I'm a werewolf. There, that's it."

"Oh." Mia just stared. Well, that explained a lot: the scars, why he got ill every month, what James meant when he said Remus had a 'furry little problem'…

"So, aren't you going to run away screaming?" he asked after a while.

"Am I supposed to?" she asked back in confusion. Weren't werewolves only dangerous during full moon? Or at least when they were not in packs. Remus clearly wasn't. "You don't look that dangerous to me."

Remus raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're just like them, aren't you?" he asked. "Sirius, James and Peter acted more or less like you."

"Why wouldn't they?" she inquired. "Honestly, I'm sorry you have to go through that but you've been nothing but nice to me since we've met. Just because I know you have a problem, that doesn't make you a bad person or anything."

"Some people don't think like you, Mia," he told her. "That is why I keep it a secret. In this school, only Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey and the guys know. Well, now you do too… and Snape."

"Snape?" Mia asked. That was about the last person she would guess that knew about Remus's… condition.

Lupin nodded. "That's what this whole thing with Sirius is about. Look, what I'm about to tell you is illegal, so… don't tell anybody, alright?" She nodded silently. "When he found out, James had this idea of finding a way to help me through the transformations – they are not very pleasant, as you can imagine – and last year he and Sirius found a way. See, werewolves are not dangerous to animals, so they had to become animagi."

"What? That is impossible," Mia said. "They are sixteen! How is it possible for them to master such a—"

"They did," Remus interrupted her. "And Peter too. Back in November they managed to do it and now they spend full moons with me. It makes the whole thing a lot easier, you know? I feel more human and they are always around to make sure I don't do anything bad."

"But Sirius did something stupid tonight," Mia guessed.

He nodded in confirmation. "There is a tunnel in the under the Whomping Willow that leads to the Shrieking Shack, which is where I transform. Snape asked Sirius where we usually sneaked to, you know, just to try to piss him off. But Sirius, in return, told him that we used the tunnel to sneak out to outside the castle. I'm not sure he thought Snape would believe it in the first place… the thing is that Snape did and he went there, trying to catch us and, if it wasn't for James, I could have ripped him apart or transform him."

Mia's mouth was hanging open. She wasn't sure who was the bigger idiot – Sirius or Snape. What had Sirius been thinking?! "What happened after?" he asked.

"Dumbledore showed up, gave Sirius detention and ordered Snape to keep his mouth shut," he told her. "I'm more mad at myself that at Sirius. I mean, he shouldn't have told Snape about the tunnel, but I'm sure he didn't mean to get him killed. On the other hand, knowing that I could have killed him…"

"You couldn't control yourself. It's not your fault you are what you are, Remus. Snape went there trying to get you guys in trouble but ended up being bitten in the arse… well, figuratively," she said. "The point is that you didn't kill anybody and, even if you did, it wouldn't be your fault."

"I doubt that would matter," he mumbled. "Anyway, James is probably lecturing him now. I hope this teaches him a lesson about why he is supposed to think before he acts."

Mia sighed. "Stop thinking of it. I'm sure he'll learn from this."

---

She found him hours later, ironically enough, standing by the lake. That seemed to be the place where the two of them always ended up when they were upset.

Mia walked in his direction and stood by his side. She didn't say a word, hoping he would be the first one to talk. She really didn't know how to start a conversation like that.

He looked at her, his face expressionless. "What are you doing here?" he asked with no accusation in his tone.

"I talked to Remus," she stated. "He told me."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Told you what?"

"Everything," she stated. "Starting with his… condition and ending with what happened last night."

"Oh," he mumbled in surprise. Remus had actually told her? He didn't know if he should be thankful, because now he didn't need to worry about letting it slip in a conversation, or angry, because now Mia knew how much he had screwed up. "So, what do you have to say?"

"Well, Remus being what he is doesn't bother me. That thing you pulled on Snape… well, I've already told you what I think of this sort of 'pranks'," she said, trying not to sound too judging.

"They are stupid," he repeated her words, trying to get where that conversation was leading into. "What about this one?"

"Ten times more stupid," she told him in a natural tone. "What do _you _think about it?"

That had been a question nobody asked him so far. "I agree with you," he confessed, lowering himself and sitting on the ground. "I wasn't trying to get him killed – I'm not like that. I just wanted him to stop acting like a smartarse. I never thought he would get more than one hell of a fright from this joke. Turns out I was wrong. James said it was reckless and stupid and, honestly, I couldn't agree more."

Mia took a seat by his side and didn't respond for a few minutes, opting to let him cool down. She could see the regret all over his face. "Look, good people do stupid stuff all the time. What is done is done. Now, all you have to do is go apologize to Remus, because, right now, he feels like a danger to everyone."

He turned to her and gave her a small smile. "Thank you," he said. "For believing me."

"You're welcome, Padfoot," she said and saw his smile widen.

"He told you that too?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I heard them calling it to you. It's a nice nickname but I think I'll stick with Sirius."

"It does sound weird coming out of your mouth," he agreed. "You really think Remus will forgive me? James said he will let me off the hook when Remus does."

"I think he will… if you promise not to be this careless ever again," she stated. "Might take a few time, though."

He took a deep breath and stared right into her eyes. The eyes he constantly dreamed of at night for some reason he couldn't understand. She was like a magnet to him, a constant in his life. Maybe it was the place where they were – a place with a lot of meaning to them – or maybe it was something else… the next thing he knew, he was kissing her… again.

Mia didn't even hesitate when she felt his lips on hers – the response was immediate. It was so similar, yet so different from the kiss – her first kiss – that they had shared three years earlier. Less awkward and more hungry. Was that snogging? She felt like they would choke before any of them would dare to put an end to that kiss.

But eventually they had to stop and, when their lips came apart, it felt like they had broke something that belonged together. She knew in that moment that she her crush on him wasn't just a crush. She was in love with him.

"I needed that," he mumbled.

"Hum… me too, sort of," Mia responded, feeling awkward. "It was fun."

"Yeah," he agreed, trying to reason with what had just happened. Why did kissing her felt different than kissing other girls? "It was fun. I mean, we're friends. Friends do… fun stuff."

"Exactly. Kissing is fun, so… we kiss," she offered. "No big deal."

"None at all," he stated.

The silence followed, with the two of them avoiding each other's eyes – they feared the other would see the lie if their eyes met.

Sirius coughed. "We should go back to the castle," he said. "I need to find Remus."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I need to… go do things."

They hoped the awkwardness would disappear eventually because 'kissing was no big deal'. Funny how both of them wanted that to happen again.

**A/N: Sorry it took me this long - I went out for the long weekend and only had time to edit the chapter today. Hope you like it. Let's just say you are a couple of chapters away of the 'changing'. Review! **


	8. Rumours and Realizations

Sixth year came but not before Sirius and Mia had made a habit of sharing a bit of snogging 'because it was fun and not a big deal'. Of course, none of them believed it was actually 'no big deal' –the kissing between them had little to do with fun; it was more of a need.

During the summer break, Sirius had made a life-changing decision – he had run away from home and moved in with the Potters, ending up being disowned. He just couldn't bear looking at his parents again since they pushed Regulus in to taking the Dark Mark and joining the Voldemort lunatic in his so called 'war' at just fifteen years old.

The whole frustration of Regulus being beyond saving had almost pushed him beyond the edge and the only things that kept him from falling were his friends, dating like a maniac and… kissing Mia over and over again – that last solution actually seemed to be the most effective of all, despite being extremely confusing on Mia's side. Her head told her that snogging with no strings attached was the perfect solution to deal with her love for Sirius without ruining their friendship but her heart wanted a lot more. Which one to pick? Well, she would just keep up with their arrangement until the decision came.

The school before Christmas break was just minutes away from ending with a Potions class. The dungeons were, as usual, freezing and most of the students were shaking while they worked in their Draughts of the Living Death, Mia included.

"… Black and Marlene McKinnon? I swear I've barely even seen them together," a Slytherin girl, Roberta Flint, was whispering to her friend just a few feet away from Mia, Lily and Elizabeth's working table.

"I guess that's no surprise," Barbara Lasher, the friend, replied. Mia had always found Lasher extremely annoying. She looked sort of cat-like with long, swirling black hair and had a high-pitched, annoying girly voice. "Black is such a player. He came begging me to go on a date with him once." Mia chuckled at that – she knew Sirius liked 'Babbs', as he called her, just as much as Snape. There was no way in this world he would ever consider going on a date with _her_. "I refused, of course. Blood traitors are not my type. So it doesn't surprise me he just went and shagged a random girl. But he could have found much better than McKinnon."

Mia's blood froze and, distracted, she accidentally dropped the flask of Hellebore Syrup she had been holding into her potion. She looked across the room searching for Sirius before she remembered he didn't have Potions anymore. He had _shagged_ Marlene?! A roommate of hers, of all people. Worse than that only if it had been one of her friends. Oh, that was just…

"_Mia, what the hell did you do to your potion?!" _Lily whispered furiously to her, making Mia snap out of her shock-induced trance.

She looked down at her potion to see it was emitting dark grey steam instead of the silvery vapour it was supposed to have. "Oh dang!"

"Vanish it before it explodes or Slughorn sees it!" Lily warned her.

With a wave of her wand, Mia made the potion disappear of the cauldron and sighed – she had to start all over again all because of that idiot boy she had fallen in love with. _Stupid, stupid arse!_

"Your draught looked fine just a few minutes ago," Elizabeth said. "How did you manage to destroy it so fast?"

"I dropped something," Mia simply said, now busy getting more fluxweed and chopping quickly.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Dropped something? Mia, you could have blow up the--" she didn't finish the sentence as she noticed Slughorn approaching their working table.

"Miss Davis, so far behind?" he asked in surprise – Mia was not a spectacular potion-maker but she usually made it though the classes.

Mia was about to reply but Lily interrupted. "It is my fault, Professor," Lily said. She rubbed her right arm and bent it, faking a pained expression. "I think I slept on my arm last night. Mia offered to help me with my potion. You know how precise stirring has to be, Professor. She was just starting hers now."

Slughorn's expression softened. "You could have just said something, Miss Evans. I surely wouldn't make you breed the potion with an injured arm. But well, at least you didn't try to use it as an excuse. I guess it wouldn't be fair to make Miss Davis work on two potions in the same class. How about I just mark the potion for the two of you? Unless you have a problem with it…"

"We don't!" Lily interrupted before Mia could open her mouth to protest. The professor nodded and proceeded to check the other students' potions.

"You didn't need to do that," Mia told Lily. "What if he caught you lying?"

Elizabeth chuckled. "Please, Slughorn loves Lily. If she told him the sky was green, he would believe it for sure."

"Still…" Mia protested

"Still nothing. That's what friends are for," Lily said. "I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

Mia shrugged. "Well, yeah. But my potion wouldn't be as good as yours, for sure."

Lily made a movement with her hand that clearly said 'let it go'. About a yard away, Snape, who had seen the whole thing, was shaking his head in disapproval. Lily glared and turned her face away from him. She hadn't uttered a word to him ever since the end of the previous year when he had called her a Mudblood and, despite his continuous apologies, Lily had ended their friendship. Mia and Elizabeth knew it hadn't been an easy thing for Lily to do – she always found a way to change the subject whenever the 'Severus issue' reached her thoughts. "Now, tell me what possessed you to drop something into the potion because I know that you are not clumsy."

She sighed. "I heard Barbara Lasher saying something about Marlene and…"

"Oh," her friends chorused before she could finish.

Mia looked at the two of them suspiciously. "_Oh_ what?" she asked and, seconds later, realized the truth. "You _knew_, didn't you? You knew and you didn't tell me!"

"Shhhhh, not so loud!" Elizabeth whispered furiously. "Okay, it's true. We knew. But we didn't know how to tell you."

"Because you clearly have thing for Sirius," Lily added.

"I don't have a thing for him!" she replied in frustration. It was partially the truth – she didn't _just _have a thing for him.

"Never mind," Elizabeth said. "What I meant was that we really didn't know how to tell you, so Lily came up with this idea of taking you to the Room of Requirement after the class to tell you and maybe the room would conjure some stuff for you to break."

"That would have been better than 'killing' my potion," she recognized with a sigh.

"Don't take it so hard, Mia," Lily said. "It's just the way he is…"

Mia nodded faintly. That was the problem. Her heart's hopes that someday, by some sort of miracle, she could have him had never been high. James had told her Sirius didn't see her 'just like any other girl'. But if this was 'just the way Sirius was', shagging random girls, they were even lower now and she didn't even know if she wanted someone like that.

---

Later that day, Mia was sitting in the Common Room doing her now not-so-large pile of homework. She had skipped dinner – the kitchens were open all night and, after all, she could just go in there.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sirius asked, coming behind her suddenly and startling her.

"Merlin, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she snapped. She had thought she was alone in the Common Room. "Shouldn't you be in the Great Hall?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't _you_?" he inquired, pulling a chair and taking a seat by her side. "I don't really feel like bumping into Reg. Caught him this afternoon trying to do dark magic on third year muggle-born. The little bastard told me it was not business because I'm _not _his brother anymore."

"I'm sorry," she said. And then, it came to her. What if that whole shagging thing had been related to this thing with Regulus? Just trying to forget? She needed to talk to him about it, even though she didn't like it. "Look, I never butt in your dates or snogs or whatever you do with that mob of girls you date but you need to get a hold of yourself, Sirius," she started carefully.

"What do you mean?" he asked in confusion.

"I mean Marlene," she clarified. "I know this thing with Regulus upsets you but that doesn't mean you can just start shagging girls…"

"Wow, wait a minute," he told her, now getting the whole thing. "Is this about that rumour about me and Marlene? Because that is _just_ a rumour. I talked to Marlene when I first heard it and she reckons it was Barbara Lasher who started the whole thing because she wanted to make her sound like a tart and you know there is just no use denying stupid rumours in this school. I'm not shagging girls just to get over my brother being an idiot or whatever it is that you think, Mia. Actually, I'm not doing it at all."

"Oh," she mumbled, ridiculously relieved.

"It's nice of you to worry about my mental health, though," he stated naturally.

Mia wanted to dig a hole on the floor and hide in there. _Idiot, idiot, idiot! _She called herself. How stupid could she make herself look? She coughed. "Well, I'm glad we cleared that up."

"So am I," he stated. "Really, you didn't just think I'd go around shagging the first girl I found, did you?"

She looked away. "I found it hard to believe."

She resumed doing her homework as he observed her. There had been something weird about that conversation, not only because it had been about… well, sex. But he couldn't help feeling that she was feeling somewhat hurt when she mentioned his supposed adventure with Marlene. Actually, now that he thought of it, that look had been on her face every time she ran into him snogging a girl or something of that sort. He let himself wonder for a second if she felt for him the same as he felt for her. He wasn't really sure what he felt himself – he just knew he always came back to her, he always compared every single kissed with hers and they were never as good.

To be honest with himself, he had imagined several times how things would be if Mia shared his feelings. But she was Mia, not just any other girl. He would beat himself up before he dared to ruin things with her.

"Are you listening?" she asked, waving her hand in front of him.

"Hum?" he said. "I was thinking."

"I said I'm hungry. Let's sneak to the kitchens, shall we?"

"Maybe that's not such a bad idea," he agreed.

---

Weeks passed and Sirius thought he was officially going nuts. He couldn't stop thinking of Mia now. That little hope she might feel the same as he did was overwhelming. He didn't even look at other girls now. She was _always _inside his head.

Sick of feeling all that, Sirius blurted the whole thing to James in the night before his and Mia's birthday and his best friend seemed to have an interesting theory about it.

"Maybe Mia is the girl you want," he suggested. "Padfoot, have you ever thought that maybe you…love her?"

And that had been the moment when it had all made sense; when he realized the truth. Mia had never been just any other girl. He had always put her beyond reach in his head because he felt somehow unworthy… because she was the one. That was the overwhelming reality: Sirius Black was in love with Mia Davis.

The next move wasn't simple. He could just keep it inside and make an effort to ignore it. But what good would it do? He would take his chances now and prove himself worthy of her. Why would he need anyone else if he managed to have her? Sirius would tell Mia how he felt tomorrow and leave it up to her. He just prayed inside that wouldn't push her away.

**A/N: Another chapter, sooner than I planned. I hope you liked this chapter - though it would be good to give you a little insight on these two's very confused teenage brains. Who wants to guess what will happen next chapter - I'll give imaginary candy to those who are right.**

Enjoy and Review!


	9. Changing

Sirius was nervous, very nervous. February 28th arrived, which was little more than just his and Mia's birthday this year. Not only were they turning off age but also it was the day he had decided to come clean. He would tell Mia how he felt for her and that could either mean turn out to be very good or very bad.

The common room was crowded with several Gryffindors – Elizabeth had, once again, made an event out of their birthday. After having been wished a happy birthday several times, patted on the back and offered a shot of smuggled firewhiskey by James, saying it was to help him loose his tongue, Sirius finally managed to sneak though the portrait hole searching for Mia, who had sneaked out just minutes earlier. He found her sitting on the floor just a few yards away from the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Hey, sitting alone in the dark?" Sirius asked her, taking a seat by her side.

"Not anymore," she replied with a smile. "I just wanted to escape for a bit. It is too crowded inside."

"Yeah. They probably won't even notice we are gone. It's not our party or anything," he said sarcastically.

She laughed softly. "It's just so odd. I don't feel off age, you know?"

He nodded. "It's probably because we are at school and we can't really do much stuff we couldn't when we were underage. I mean we can't apparate here, doing magic is something we do every day… well, we could get pissed with firewhiskey."

She was the sarcastic one this time. "Right, that's exactly the first thing I want to do after turning seventeen. It just feels the same way it did yesterday or the day before, like nothing has changed."

Of one thing Sirius was sure – things would change after he told her what he had planned to. "Do you want things to change?" he inquired in a low voice.

She thought for a moment. "Yeah. Change is good sometimes."

"Well," Sirius said, a weight on his chest caused by the nerves, "maybe I can help you with that." He touched her lips with his own. She responded, like always, opening her mouth and letting him in. They kept kissing for what seemed hours in their minds, although in reality it hadn't passed more than a couple of minutes. They broke apart when they heard the Fat Lady making an outraged sound in the background and complaining about students kissing in the middle of the corridor after curfew.

"This isn't really a change, Sirius," Mia whispered, ignoring the portrait's protests. "It's not like we don't do this all the time."

He shook his head and got up. "Follow me," he said, stretching his arm to help her up.

She just stared for a few seconds before giving in to the curiosity and accepting the hand, following him. He led her to an empty classroom, closing the door behind them. Mia sat on one of the desks and waited for him to do whatever he was planning to.

He took a deep breath. "Remember that chat we had last December? About that rumour."

Mia nodded, wondering where he was trying to get with this. Thinking back of that conversation still made her feel awfully embarrassed.

"Well, I've been a bit… confused ever since," he confessed.

"About what?" she inquired.

"About us," Sirius told her. "About what we are. About why the hell I couldn't get you out of my head. And then yesterday I talked to James and what he said gave me some… clarity."

She sat frozen. He couldn't get her out of his head?! _She _couldn't get him out of _her_ head! Where was he getting with that? "What… what did James tell you?"

"That maybe I was in love with you," Sirius confessed. "And he was right. I am in love with you. I think I've been for a long time but I just didn't know it, maybe because I was afraid or because I'm just really thick. But I am in love with you, Mia. I know it now."

Mia looked… stared at him in disbelief. She had to have fallen asleep and be dreaming because he couldn't possibly be telling her he loved her. But she wasn't asleep – imagining the Fat Lady lecturing them about kissing in the hallway wasn't something that would take place in a dream of hers. "I… hum… I…"

He took a few steps in her direction, standing only a couple inches in front of her. "Say something, Mia. Please."

She couldn't utter a word, so she just climbed out of the table and pulled him into another kiss. But, this time, she made sure it was different from the other ones. Mia tried to put the words she had found herself unable to say in it, making the kiss soft and loving. He tangled one of his hands in the middle of her brown hair and the other touched her back as hers rested on his waist. She hoped he was getting the message as her brain seemed to be too numb to verbalize it. Their lips parted eventually but he kissed her forehead and pulled her into a tight hug like he would never let go of her.

Mia rested her head against his chest and sighed, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath and whispered his name – apparently she could talk again. "You have no idea how long I've been in love with you."

He smiled hearing her response and rested his chin on her head. "So, does this mean I get to have you as my girlfriend?"

She took one step back, her hands holding his, and smiled. "You do know that involves not dating anybody else."

Sirius shrugged. "I can live with being your exclusive. I haven't been doing much of that lately, anyway. It's hard to date a girl when I am always comparing them with you."

She felt proud of herself for having that effect on him. "Alright, then," Mia told him. Part of her was till refusing to believe the last ten minutes of her life had been real and she was actually Sirius Black's girlfriend.

"Promise me you'll hex me if I screw this up," he requested.

"I won't need to," she said, pecking him on the lips. "This was really the best birthday present I've ever gotten so far."

"I have to agree with that," he declared, grinning at her. "I even feel cheerful enough to go back to that blasted party."

"I feel the same way," she said. "Let's not tell any of our friends about this and see which one guesses first. My bet is on James. He's strangely perceptive. Gave me quite a heads up about you last year."

"He did?" Sirius asked surprised.

"I'll tell you about it one of these days," Mia promised.

"But, well, James doesn't count. He knows I was going to talk to you today, so I doubt it will take him more than half a minute to figure it out. Let's leave it to the others. If none of them guesses, we can we just make it more obvious with a bit of public snogging, can't we?"

She laughed in return as he walked her out of the classroom.

---

"Are you sure you haven't seen them?" Elixabeth asked Remus again. "It is their party. They can't have ditched it."

"I haven't seen any of them for a while but the room is full of people. Maybe you just missed them," he told her.

"I doubt it," Lily said.

James shook his head from his seat just a couple of feet away. "Just leave them be. It's their birthday, after all." Lily stared at him with an eyebrow raised and he huffed. "What? Does wanting to leave them alone make me a prat?"

"No," she said, looking surprised. "It is actually impressive."

His face lightened up. "It is? Than will you—"

"Don't ruin it," she interrupted. "Just let me believe for a single night that you are not an obsessive git."

"Who's the obsessive git?" Sirius asked, approaching them through the crowd pulling Mia behind him by the hand.

"Where have the two of you been?!" Elizabeth shrieked.

"Just outside," Mia said. "It's a bit hot in here, isn't it?"

Glancing at his best friend for a moment, Sirius knew immediately he and Mia had been right – considering the expression on his face, James had already figured it out. Sirius quickly shot him a '_don't you dare breathe a word_' look.

"It's almost midnight. You guys' birthday is about to be over," Lily said.

"There will be more next year," Sirius told her, a goofy smile on his face.

"Yeah, but the year after that we'll be out of Hogwarts," Remus pointed out. "It is highly unlike you'll celebrate it together then."

"You never know," James pointed out from his seat, grinning knowingly. Sirius glared at him.

"Oh, come on," Elizabeth stated. "Considering Mia will be in Healing School and Black will be in… well, training for whatever it is he wants to do, I doubt there will be much time to spend the day with old school friends."

_How thick are they?! _Mia thought. Couldn't they see she was holding hands with Sirius and that they had just arrived to the common room _together_? "This is just not working," she told Sirius. "They are too dumb."

"Who's dumb?" Lily asked.

"You guys are," Sirius said, turning to Mia. "Plan B?"

"Plan C," she told him. He looked at her confused – there was no plan C. "Up in your dorm. It is way too crowded down here," she specified.

"I wouldn't do that," James told them, close to laughing. "Pete's sleeping in there. You don't want to scare him to death, do you?"

"Why are you all talking in charades?" Remus inquired with Mia and Lily nodding behind him.

Mia groaned and turned to Sirius. "Just go ahead with plan B or they will never get it."

He grinned. "I was hoping they wouldn't," he stated before kissing her for the fourth time – or fifth, he wasn't sure – that night.

"Oh Merlin," Remus murmured, embarrassed.

Lily and Elizabeth were just staring at the kissing couple with their mouths hanging half-open.

They broke apart seconds later and looked at their friends. "Have we not mentioned we are together?" Mia asked, trying to sound innocent.

"You…" Elizabeth started telling Mia. "You're together? For real?"

"For real," she confirmed.

"When did this happen?" Lily inquired.

"Twenty minutes ago or so," Mia replied with a smile on her face. Sirius put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer – better make the most of it now that he could.

"Well, I don't really know what to say," Remus told them.

"How about 'took you long enough'?" James suggested from his seat. "It was a long-time coming, really."

"It was, wasn't it?" Sirius asked, a goofy grin all over his face. "Well, I guess it's better late than never."

**A/N: I'm never asking my sister to post for me again... Well, hope you liked it. What do you think of the 'changing'? Send some feedback.**


	10. First Date

In the days after the birthday party, the whole school was shaken by the news that Sirius Black had decided to go steady with a girl. Mia had even heard Barbara Lasher commenting with a friend that maybe Sirius was only dating her because her family was loaded and he had been disowned and 'that would be the only explanation for him to date the Davis girl'. Of course, just a few hours after Mia had told Sirius about that, Lasher showed up in the Hospital Wing covered in Hives.

"What's that putrid smell?" Sirius asked mischievously as he and the Marauders passed night next to Lasher after leaving the Care of Magical Creatures class, the last of the day, about a week after his birthday.

"I'd say it smells like rash-ointment," James pointed out. "Don't you agree guys?" he asked Remus and Peter.

"Doesn't seem like dung to me," Remus simply said as Peter shrugged.

Sirius chuckled. "But who among us would need to use rash ointment?" he asked them, looking around. His eyes landed on Lasher and he smiled mischievously. "Babbs, how are the hives? Madam Pomfrey lets you walk around looking… or rather smelling, like that?"

Barbara turned redder than she already was with the rage. "I know it was _you_," she said through her teeth, a glare on her face. "You did this to me!"

"I dunno. Maybe it is a side-effect of the bitchiness," he pointed out. "The body works in the strangest ways."

"You… YOU!" she growled.

"Look at the bright side," James told her. "It will pass in a couple of weeks as long as you keep applying that wonderfully smelling ointment."

Barbara gritted her teeth even more and reached for her wand. The only thing that kept her for cursing them was the fact that Filch showed up telling them to hurry inside because it was about to rain and he didn't want them filling the whole castle with mud. Lasher looked even more furious and walked away with a murderous look on her face, followed by a bunch of other Slytherins leaving the Marauders behind laughing.

"Brilliant, Padfoot," James said. "Just brilliant."

Remus coughed. "Don't we usually make a rule of not being too hard on girls?"

"That's not a girl," Sirius stated. "That's a harpy. Rules don't apply to her. Nobody questions my newfound capacity of loving a girl and gets away with it. And admit it, Moony, Babbs looks a lot more colourful now, doesn't she?"

Remus tried to look serious but didn't succeed. "Red does suit her like a glove."

---

"There's a… Hogsmeade visit… next weekend," Mia told Sirius between kisses. The two of them had met about half an hour after his confrontation with Lasher and, after spending a while with their friends in the common room, excused themselves to Sirius's dorm for a bit of snogging on his bed.

He pulled away for a moment. "There is?"

She nodded. "Didn't you see the notice on the board? Lily put it there half an hour ago."

Sirius shook his head. "Guess this means we get to have an actual date."

Mia nodded. "Let me warn you that you won't see me inside Madam Pudifoot's for any money in the world," she said. "Last time I was there—"

"Your date's ex showed up, yelled at him and next thing you know they were snogging in an alley," he recited. "Don't worry, I'm as eager to go into that pink hole as you are."

"Good."

He grinned and pecked her lips again, a full snog following. Being able to actually show each other how they really felt was still pretty new to them. Sometimes Mia imagined that was all part of a very elaborate fantasy made inside her head – to tell the truth, if someone had told her one year before this would happen, she wouldn't believe it. But at the same time it felt so damn right.

It was the knocking on the door that made them pull apart. Sirius rolled to her side and groaned. "What?" he asked.

A red-faced Peter opened the dorm's door with a hand covering his eyes. Mia would have found that scene comical if it wasn't for the fact that she was so frustrated for having been interrupted.

"I… er… I need to get my… book," the short boy said. "Sorry."

"You can stop covering your eyes, Wormtail," Sirius told him in annoyance. "We look decent."

Peter slowly lowered his hand and ran closer to his bed, opening his truck and taking out a book. "Er… thanks. Go back to… what you were doing." After that, he practically ran out of the room.

They stared after him with eyebrows rose.

"We really need to start working on finding him a girlfriend," Mia pointed out. "Maybe that will make him less awkward."

Sirius shook his head. "Forget Peter," he said. "Where were we?"

She smiled as he leaned to another kiss.

---

Saturday morning, Sirius and Mia managed to leave Hogwarts before the rest of the students started to form a mass in front of the school's gates. The weather was remarkably cold, considering spring was almost coming, giving them a good excuse to walk around the village very cosily.

Also, the few students that had also gotten to the village early seemed to be looking at them intently, sometimes pointing and whispering things to each other.

"Is it me or _everyone _is staring at us?" Mia whispered to Sirius. She hated to be the centre of everyone's attention – that was why being ignored by most of the non-Gryffindor school population never bothered her.

Sirius shrugged. "Just let them stare, as long as that is all they do."

"It's annoying," she replied.

Her boyfriend laughed. "Well, you couldn't expect people to take the fact that I am out of the market lightly," he told her. "I'm sure people will eventually get used to you managing to get the hottest and most desired bachelor in the school for yourself."

Mia rolled her eyes. "Add modest to that list of qualities," she told him sarcastically.

He grinned and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. "The qualities are all for you."

She couldn't help smiling too and the two of them kept strolling lazily though the village's main street. Suddenly, Mia stopped in her tracks. "What the bloody hell is she doing here?!" she asked in a surprised tone.

"Who?" Sirius asked in confusion. He suddenly realized who she meant. A tall woman with dark brown hair who Sirius wouldn't give more than thirty years old and, if he didn't know better, could have assumed to be Mia's older sister was walking in their direction.

"There you are, Mia," she said. "I was wondering if I had come too early."

"Lulu, what are you doing here?" Mia inquired in disbelief. "How did you know I would be in Hogsmeade today?"

_Lulu. So that is Mia's nanny,_ Sirius thought. He had pictured her at least looking old enough to be Mia's mother. Also, considering the circumstances of Mia's upbringing, meeting that woman was the equivalent to meeting his girlfriend's 'parents'.

"Poppy told me," Lulu replied. "You know, your school matron. We've known each other since school." She turned to Sirius, checking him from head to toes. "And you must be Sirius Black." Her tone was even – he couldn't tell if she had approved him so far or not.

"Er… hi," he said awkwardly.

Lulu looked close to laughing with his short and nervous reply before she turned to Mia. "Let's go to the Three Broomsticks, shall we? It's freezing out here."

Before any of them could reply, Lulu turned around and started walking in pub's direction.

"So…" Mia started as they followed the other woman to the pub. "That's Lulu."

"Yeah," he said.

"I had no idea she was coming today," she stated, looking at him. "Please say something."

"You forgot to mention she was _this_ young," he said. "I swear I thought for a moment she was your long-lost sister or something. Are you related?"

Mia laughed as they entered the Three Broomsticks. "For the record, Lu is not that young - she's thirty-four. And, as for being related, who knows? Everyone seems to be related in the wizarding world. I wouldn't be surprised if she was my fourth cousin three times removed of something like that."

That remark about everyone being related in the Wizarding World made Sirius shudder for several reasons but mostly because wondered for a moment if he and Miawere related too. _Merlin, I hope not,_ he thought.

The two of them approached Lulu's table and took the two seats in front of her.

"So, Sirius," she started. "As you probably know, Mia is practically my family."

"Yes… ma'am," Sirius replied. He really didn't know what to say – he had imagined he would have a lot of time to get used to the idea of meeting Mia's mother-like nanny before that actually happened.

"Call me Lulu," she said. "Ma'am makes me sound old. But, as I was saying, considering my history with Mia, I feel like I'm supposed to, well, make sure your good for her."

"Lu!" Mia shouted in disbelief. Lulu couldn't be doing that to her, she just couldn't!

"Calm down, I'm not going to boil him alive," she told Mia. "I'm just going to ask him a few questions." Lulu turned to Sirius, who was now white as a sheet. "Let's start. Criminal record?"

"What?" he inquired in confusion. His brain was very slow at the moment.

"Do you have any criminal record?" she repeated slowly.

"Er… do Filch's punishment records count?" he asked back.

Lulu smiled. "Right, Mia mentioned you have knack for pranking. What's life without a bit of fun? Anyway, how do you feel about muggleborns and half-bloods?"

"They're as good as anyone else," Sirius replied automatically. Maybe that wouldn't be as bad as he had foreseen, if she was about to ask him questions of that sort.

"Addictions?"

"For Merlin's sake, Lulu!" Mia said, her face bright red with embarrassment.

"It's okay, Mia. I don't have any addictions," Sirius said. Well, maybe he had if snogging Mia counted.

"Stalking exes?" Lulu asked.

"Not that I know of," he told her.

"How many ex-girfriends?"

Mia covered her face with her hands, hoping she would just die before Lulu embarrassed her further. Why the bloody hell was she doing that?!

Sirius hesitated in that one. "Ex-girlfriends: none. Dates and snogs: a bunch. Well, a large bunch."

Lulu nodded. "And what made you all of a sudden see Mia so differently?" she asked.

"Lulu!" Mia shouted in disbelief. "We're done here!"

"It's okay," Sirius told her, his hand covering hers. "She's just doing her job protecting you." He turned to Lulu. "Mia was always different to me. That's why I never dared to date her before. Because she was too important for me to hurt."

Lulu leaned back on her chair and smiled at Mia. "I like him."

Sirius grinned in triumph and Mia looked at her disbelief. "So you had to question him like a criminal just to conclude that," she accused.

"Your parents did a good job hurting you over and over," Lulu said naturally. "I'm sure you can understand I don't want you to suffer more than you need to, so I had to make sure this boy was good enough to take care of your heart." She looked at Sirius. "Ironically enough, seems like he has already given his."

"Er… thank you," Sirius replied, not sure of what to say.

"Don't thank me," she said. "Just let me warn that if you ever hurt her… well, let's just say you'd better have a coffin ready. And get over the nervousness – you'll have to get used to me for when you come over during summer, which, by the way, I'm demanding or else Mia will be lurking around the house looking like something ate her puppy."

"Thanks," Mia said dryly before looking at Sirius. "See what I have to put up with?"

"I can't complain," he said. He actually liked Lulu – it seemed like the two of them shared the purpose of protecting Mia.

Lulu laughed. "Well, I won't take more time from your date," she said, getting up. She raised an eyebrow when Sirius and Mia got up too. "Aren't you two going to stay all cosy here?"

"I doubt the other costumers would like to witness a snogging show," Mia offered as she followed her nanny out of the pub.

"Oh, that reminds me," she said. "_Be safe!_"

Mia blushed. "Lulu! We're not doing _that_!" she whispered furiously as Sirius fought back laughter. Hearing a thing like that should be mortifying, coming from the person who had raised his girlfriend but, after meeting Lulu, it just sounded too comical to be truth.

The cold air of the street hit them like a train and he wrapped a protective arm around Mia.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Sirius," Lulu told him. "Keep an eye on—"

"Lucy?" an unfamiliar male voice called behind Lulu. By the way her face tensed, both Mia and Sirius realized it didn't sound so unfamiliar to her. The man calling Lulu's name was about the same age as Lulu. He was tall with short sandy blond hair and chocolate coloured eyes.

Mia's nanny turned to see him. "Gabe," she replied, her voice sounding soft. "It's been years."

He nodded. "It has." His eyes fell on Mia and Sirius. Mia could swear she heard him gulp. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your… friends?"

"Right," Lulu murmured. "Gabe, this is Amelia Davis and her boyfriend, Sirius Black." Then, she turned to the other two. "This is Gabriel McKinnon. We were… friends back in school."

"McKinnon?" Sirius asked in surprise. "Like Marlene?"

"She is my niece," he said calmly. "Do you two know her?"

Mia nodded. "She's my dorm-mate."

Lulu coughed and looked at Mia and Sirius. "Aren't you supposed to be going back to your date?"

That was clearly code to _'Get Lost'_. Mia nodded, understanding whatever conversation those two were about to have was not for her ears. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. McKinnon."

"Yeah, nice to meet you," Sirius said too before the two of them walked away. "Very interesting, that nanny of yours," he said when they were a few dozens of miles away from Lulu and McKinnon.

"Yeah," Mia whispered. She snuggled closer to him and couldn't help wondering why Gabriel McKinnon looked so familiar to her even though she had never met him before. She knew, however, better than to ask Lulu.

---

Meanwhile, in front of the Three Broomsticks the conversation had a slightly different tone. Lulu could feel Gabriel's stare piercing through her like a sword even before their eyes met: pale green meeting brown.

"That girl… It was her, wasn't it?" he inquired in a low tone.

Lulu nodded. "That's her."

He opened and closed his mouth once before actually letting the words out. "You went back for her?"

"I did," she interrupted. "But I'm just her nanny. She doesn't know. I couldn't stay away, Gabe, I just couldn't."

He pursed his lips for a moment. "Well, you could have said something. Did you think it was easy for me? I've always wondered how she was, what she looked like…"

"You can stop wondering now," Lulu said. "You've just seen her."

"And she's dating already…" he mumbled. "Merlin, time does pass." He was silent for a moment. "Do you regret it?"

"Every day," Lulu admitted sadly.

Gabriel sighed. "Me too," he told her. "Maybe if things had been different we would have had an actual shot."

She shook her head. "If things had been different they wouldn't be like they are now, Gabe. The way they are isn't perfect but at least she's around."

He nodded in acceptance. "It was good while it lasted. But you never know the future."

"You never know," she agreed.

"I've got to go on with the patrolling. The auror office put me here to look after the kids during the Hogsmeade weekend. After the last attacks they don't want to take chances," he told her.

"I'm glad they don't," she stated. "It was good to see you, Gabe."

"You too, Luce," he replied and started walking away only to turn around suddenly. "You did a good job, Luce. She seems like a good girl."

"She is," she confirmed. "A lot better than we were. And a lot smarter." He smiled and this time, when he turned around, he didn't turn back.

Lulu sighed. They had had something very powerful in the past but here they were now, parting ways again. Sometimes people were just not meant to be.

**A/N: I am in a giving mood today, considering I wasn't going to post until friday... Alright, so I am daring your deductive skills - what is Lulu's big secret? I am obviously asking this to those who didn't read the previews version of the fic or you will already know. Pounds of imaginary candy to those who figure it out.**


	11. Summer Break

Summer Break arrived just a couple of weeks after the exams, to most of the students' satisfaction. Sirius and Mia, however, didn't really know how to feel about it. In one hand, no school meant there were no snogging restrictions for them and several opportunities to go out on dates. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't be able to see each other every day of the week, especially since Lulu had planned to spend a couple of weeks with Mia in Tuscany, starting the first day of vacations.

"I'll send you a postcard," Mia promised when the two of them were having their fare. "Actually, I'll send you one every day."

Sirius tries to grin. "Right, maybe it won't be that bad. Two weeks pass in a heartbeat." He wasn't really sure about that, though.

"I'll be back before you even know it," she added, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his lips softly. "I love you."

This time, he actually managed to give her a non-forced smile. "I love you too," he replied. "Go on before Lulu thinks I kidnapped you. She'd break me like a twig."

Mia smiled and kissed him one last time. "I'll miss you," she said before apparating home.

Sirius sighed and stared at the place she had been standing just seconds earlier. Minutes later, James showed up by his side and patted his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Padfoot. The worst thing that can happen is her finding an italian guy prettier than you and dumping your arse," he joked.

Sirius turned to him with a glare. "You are asking for a black eye, aren't you, Prongs?"

James laughed. "Look who's in a foul mood. Sounds like you've just lost a limb instead of having your girlfriend leaving for a couple of weeks in vacations."

Sirius grumbled something about it feeling like he had lost a limb as he followed James out of the platform – guess he'd have to manage to survive for two weeks without her.

---

Turns out, the two weeks without Sirius weren't exactly great but Mia managed to bear them. Sure, having Lulu around made the whole thing a lot easier, considering she was as hyperactive as a three-year-old and wouldn't leave Mia alone for a single moment. Still, she managed to send Sirius a postcard every day with short massages like _'Wish you were here' _or _'I miss you_', always receiving a response in the same day with an equally short message, which was always the same: _'I love you'_.

The days passed and, _finally_, she saw herself back home flooing Sirius to invite him over. He seemed as eager to see her as she was and, even before she managed to unpack her suitcase, her doorbell was ringing.

"Well, the boy surely seems eager to see you again," Lulu called from her own room.

Mia ignored her as she sped downstairs to open the door to him. Step by step, she got closer and closer to the door that separated them. And there he stood, as handsome and mischievous-looking as she remembered. "So, did you find any Italian bloke better than me?" he asked with a grin on his face.

"Oh, yes," she replied with a mock-serious face. "His name is Carlo. We're getting married next week. I saved you a seat in the front row. No hard feelings, right?"

"I'll give you the hard feelings," he told her, taking one step ahead and pulling her into one of those intense kisses he was so good at.

Mia couldn't believe they were actually snogging at her doorway but, to be honest, she would snog him anywhere now. She circled his waist with her arms and deepened the kiss and, they only broke apart when someone coughed behind her – Lulu.

"Mia, you know the house rules," her nanny told her, passing with a mountain of dirty laundry. "If you want to snog a guy, take him upstairs to your room. Oh, and it's nice to see you, Sirius." She disappeared into another room without saying another word.

Sirius stared at the place where she had been standing in disbelief – she was actually encouraging him to go snog Mia in her room? Seriously? That had to be the coolest nanny in the universe.

"You'll lose days try to understand how her mind works," Mia said, guessing what was going on inside his head. "She's a free spirit."

"Well, thinking some blokes have to worry about having their girlfriend's parents trying to curse them…" he mumbled.

She laughed. "There's a good point of view," Mia told him before sighing. "I've missed you."

"And you think I didn't?" he asked back. "So, where exactly is your room?"

"Upstairs," Mia said, leading him to the stairs. "But let me warn you it is sort of a mess. I was still unpacking."

He laughed as he climbed the steps. "You'd rethink the definition of 'mess' if you saw how my room looked like in my parent's house."

She smiled. Sirius followed her to the first in front of the stairs and Mia opened it, indicating it was her room.

The spacious room was amazingly sunny due to having windows in two of its walls. Its flooring was gleaming hardwood, while the walls were tiled with pale yellow. Mia's single bed, whose scarlet bedspread was covered with discarded clothes and her open suitcase, was placed by the right side of the door. Sirius could notice a soft fragrance in the room reminiscent of Mia. "It is definitely not that messy," he said.

Mia entered, grabbing all the clothes on the bed and throwing them inside the suitcase, which she promptly moved to the floor. "I can finish unpacking later," she declared. "Now, where were we before Lulu ordered us upstairs?"

He approached her, grinning goofily and pointed to her lips. "I think we were right there," he told her, bringing his lips to hers and kissing her passionately.

They were, once again, rudely interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing, which reminded them that Mia's bedroom door was still open.

"… _time is that ministry award ceremony?" _a female voice that Sirius found unfamiliar asked.

"_In two hours, Susan,"_ a male voice replied.

Mia immediately jumped away from Sirius. "Great, of all times my parents could have picked to come home…" she said sarcastically.

"Am I supposed to hide?" he asked her, rather unsure of his next move.

She shook her head. "They won't care," she told him before exiting the room followed by Sirius to see her parents climbing up the stairs with two large suitcases.

"Amelia, shouldn't you be at school?" Susan Davis asked her daughter when she saw her on top of the stairs. Her voice was unnaturally careless towards her daughter as her hair was unnaturally auburn, considering the age she appeared to be.

"It's July, the school is closed," Mia simply told her, trying to sound calm. Sirius could tell she was boiling inside – even his parents used to know when he had Summer Break.

"Oh, alright then," she replied, looking at her wristwatch.

Mia's father turned to Sirius with an inquisitive look as he scratched his bald head. "And who might you be?"

"Mia's boyfriend," he said. "Sirius—"

"How lovely," Mia's mother cut him off. "I'm sorry, but we don't have time to stay chatting. We just came by to pack more clothes – we have a ceremony in the Ministry in two hours and a portkey to Albania tonight."

"Well, don't let me keep you," Mia told them, a little bit of almost unrecognizable sarcasm on her voice. She turned her back to them and walked back into her room, which didn't seem to bother them in the sightless.

Lulu, who had joined them upstairs at some point, went after Mia not saying a word to her employers.

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Darius," Mia's father told Sirius before he and his wife entered what Sirius assumed to be their room.

He returned to his girlfriend's room to find Lulu pacing right next to her bed, where Mia was lying looking at the ceiling, her arms crossed on her chest. "…wrong with this people?!" the nanny was saying when Sirius joined them again. "They haven't seen you for almost a year and didn't even bother to ask how you were?"

"I don't care," Mia said. "It's what they always do: they come over, run into me, have a meaningless exchange of words and then leave again without saying goodbye."

"…of all the people in this word who could have gone such a good daughter as you," Lulu continued. "I never thought…" She suddenly stopped talking and just left the room, shaking her head and cursing Susan and Phillip Davis's existence.

Mia sighed when she heard the door of her room closing with a bang. "Lulu gets too upset with this," she whispered. "She should just accept that we don't pick our parents. We need to deal with what we get."

"Like I don't know that already," Sirius told her, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Your father called me _Darius_."

Mia shrugged. "Don't take it personally," she told him. "Let's just forget they are here. They'll be gone before we notice."

Sirius sighed. "You do know they are the idiots, right? They have to be a couple of idiots not to like you because there is not a thing in you that could make them feel that way."

"Lulu has told me that already," Mia said. "But, like I told her, I don't care. This thing with my parents has reached a point when it stopped hurting. And you know why? Because I don't love them anymore. To me they're just people who share my last name."

He remained silent, not really knowing what to say. His parents meant absolutely nothing good to him too but he had never said that out loud – not even in his darkest moments. That was the hardest thing he had ever heard Mia say and her tone sounded just like she was stating a very natural fact. He hated Susan and Philip Davis for making his Mia feel like this.

She pulled his arm, gesturing for him to lie down next to her, which he did without any hesitation. Mia laid her head against his chest and just stayed like that for minutes as he draw invisible circles with his fingers on her back.

"Sirius," she murmured after a while. "Don't freak out but, if someday we end up marrying and having kids, promise me we'll make sure they don't turn out not liking their parents as we do."

He chuckled. "I'll try my best to not to let that happen," he promised.

---

Summer Break kept passing until the morning of September 1st arrived, meaning it was time for Sirius and Mia to go back to Hogwarts for their final year there. The train was once more filling with students of all ages. The first years excitedly said their goodbyes to their parents before going into it.

Before Mia could even utter a word, Sirius pulled her to a long kiss when she entered the train compartment where he had been sitting alone until then.

"Hi," she breathed after they broke apart. "One would think you haven't seen me for months judging by this reception."

He shook his head. "Two days is far too long."

"You managed to survived two weeks without me in July," she pointed out as the two of them placed her truck on the shelf above the seats.

He grinned widely. "Well, I can only say that makes you sort of like a drug – the more I get, the more I need."

"My pleasure to keep you addicted," she replied as he pecked her lips, before she took a seat by the window. "Where is everyone else? Elizabeth had already done a bunk on me to go snog Ludo Bagman."

"Ludo Bagman?" Sirius asked in surprise, sitting by her side and wrapping one arm around her shoulders. "The Hufflepuff's Beater?"

Mia nodded. "Apparently, they ran into each other during summer and started _dating_."

Sirius chuckled. "Well, that's sort of awkward. He is a Beater, she's a Seeker. He is supposed to throw Bludgers at her. That can't be good."

"I'm not exactly cheering for them, anyway," Mia confessed. Everyone knew Bagman was an idiot but, apparently, Elizabeth had a thing for idiots. "Back to what I asked, where is everyone else?"

He shrugged. "Pete… I have no idea where he is. Remus is in a prefect meeting and James, well, you'll never believe it."

"What won't I ever believe?" she asked.

Sirius grinned. "Dumbledore must have hit his head somewhere because he made James _head boy_."

Mia raised her eyebrows. "You're joking."

He shook his head. "I'm not. You should have seen his face when he received the letter – it looked like he was going to launch himself out of the window! He made me promise not to tell anyone, you included, until school started."

She was silent, thinking for a moment of the implications of James Potter being the Head Boy. "You do know who the Head Girl is, right?"

"I have a pretty good idea," he stated. "Evans?"

Mia nodded. "They'll be sharing a dorm. All year."

"I know," Sirius said, grinning widely.

"They will kill each other!" she said.

He looked dubious. "I doubt it. See, James was asking me yesterday about how he could impress Evans this year. I told him the first step was stopping asking her out."

She nodded. "That's a start. You could also give him a free pass to give you detention – Lily would be impressed if he didn't even let his best friend get in the way of the school rules."

"No way! I'm not getting detention so he can just impress a girl!" Sirius protested.

"Oh, well, I was thinking of joining you once or twice. I'm sure James could pull a bunch of string so we were put in classroom all alone," Mia told him. "But well, if you're so bothered by it…"

"No, not at all," Sirius said. "If you're joining me there that changes everything."

"Oh, does it?" she asked in a fake-surprise tone.

He nodded. "You're pretty good at this making-plans-to-match-people thing."

She smiled. "Well, we have to give them a little push – they are just as meant to be as we are."

He shot her a mischievous smile. "So which one do you think will break first?"

**A/N: So, what do you think? Another chapter - not as long as the last one (that was really long, compared to the others). Mia's parents are a real piece of work, aren't they? Send some feedback!**


	12. Bring the Storm

Around the end of November, James's parents announced in a letter to him and Sirius that they would be spending their fortieth wedding anniversary, which happened to be in Christmas Day, and the two weeks around it in Paris, leaving the two of them to spend Christmas in Hogwarts.

Of course, knowing that, Mia had the idea that maybe this year Lulu ought to accept her family's incessant invitations to spend Christmas with them so she could stay in Hogwarts with Sirius. It did take a lot of convincing but, in the end, Lulu ended up giving in.

By the time Christmas Eve arrived, bringing a massive snowstorm with it, Mia was frustrated. There had been some sort of tension between her and Sirius for the past month. Not the bad sort of tension but the… well, sex-related sort. For several times their snogging seemed to be leading to something more before they were for some reason interrupted. That was getting awfully infuriating.

"Well, that just sucks," Sirius said when James told him he couldn't go outside because of the storm. The two of them, along with Mia and Lily, were standing in the empty Entrance Hall. "Now we have to stay inside for the whole bloody day."

"Would you rather I let you out and you freeze your arse off?"James inquired.

Sirius shrugged. "It's not exactly very cosy inside, anyway," he mumbled. "What's wrong with the castle's cold-shield?"

"Dumbledore said it was down," Lily said, wrapping her cloak further around her. "The storm seems to be interfering with it. He's not sure he will be able to set the shield up again before it ends."

"That's just bloody great," he murmured sarcastically.

"Don't complain," Mia told him, rubbing her own forearms hoping to create a bit of heat. "Lily and James have to patrol the castle's doors the whole afternoon so nobody gets out. At least we get to go back to the dorm."

"Yeah, listen to the voice of reason," James told him with a smirk. "Next time you see me and Lily we may very well be ice sculptures."

"Well, can I move to your room if that happens?" Sirius asked with a laugh.

"You wish," his best friend replied.

"Alright," he said, wrapping one arm around Mia. "I'd better take this lady up to the tower before she gets one of these nasty colds going around now. It is difficult to snog when you can't breathe through your nose."

Mia elbowed him on the side. "It is also difficult to snog when your girlfriend doesn't want to."

"You wouldn't," Sirius said.

The look she gave him clearly dared him to try it and see what happened.

James chuckled as Lily shook her head. "Alright, just go back to the tower," she told them. "We'll come by when Dumbledore relieves us of the job."

"Okay," Mia said. "We'll be waiting for you."

"Stay close to each other," Sirius told Lily and James with a smirk. "That way you can share the heat."

He turned around, bringing Mia with him, and hurried to the stairs before he could see their reactions.

"You're terrible," Mia told him with a laugh.

"I was simply stating a fact," Sirius replied, trying to sound absolutely innocent. "Can't I look out for my best mate?"

She shook her head, smiling slightly. "Sure, you were just looking out for James," she said, not really believing him.

"Of course I was. Just as I am now looking out for you when I say you look like you are freezing," he pulled her even closer as a way to heat her up a bit.

"Who isn't?" she asked, leaning her head against his shoulder as they walked. "We are in a thousand-year-old castle whose cold-shields are down."

"Well, then we just have to get cosier, don't we?"

---

Every Gryffindor in the castle seemed to surrounding the common room's fireplace, leaving no space at all for Mia and Sirius there. They ended up escaping up to his dorm, which was now sort of like a private room to Sirius as all his dorm mates were home for Christmas.

"We can always burn down one of the beds if we get too cold," he joked as he locked the dorm's door. "I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't even blame us."

"Right, setting beds on fire seems to be a great way for us to get busy in Christmas Eve," she replied, rubbing her arms up and down. She hated cold ever since she was a little girl.

He saw her shivering and approached her, wrapping his arms around her petite form once more. "Look, why don't the two of us just go into my bed and stay there for a while. You'll see in a few hours the cold-shields will be back on and we'll be able go and do something nice for the day."

She thought for a moment of how awkward that might be considering the sexual tension she had been feeling lately but, before she even realized she had sat on the bed and taken her cloak and shoes off, her head was already hitting the pillow and he was covering her with the covers.

"Hum, pillow smells like you," she murmured, pulling it closer.

"That surprising because I don't sleep in here or anything," he joked as he slipped into the bed, lying by her side. "And you'll have to share it because that is the only one I've got."

Mia let go of the pillow and shifted so her back was resting against his chest. Sirius wrapped his arms around her waist and they just lied like that in silence for several minutes.

She couldn't help thinking of how good… no, how perfect it felt to lie in his arms like that. It seemed like they had been made for that. Her eyes were starting to get heavy and Mia realized she was falling asleep. But she didn't want to. It was Christmas Eve – she couldn't just fall asleep. So, fighting back the sleep, she shifted again so she was now facing him. "Do you think next year we will be spending Christmas Eve like this?" she asked in a whisper.

He shrugged. "I have no idea what lunch is tomorrow, much less how we will spend Christmas Eve next year," he told her in an even tone. "But, if it's up to me, you can bet we will."

Mia smiled. "Well, I'd better start convincing Lulu to spend Christmas with her parents from now on," she said.

"That might be a good thing," Sirius agreed, half-laughing. "I get dibs on you now." The smile he gave her after that made her fall in love with him all over again.

"I want to kiss you now," she whispered.

He grinned even wider. "What's stopping you?"

"I'm too comfortable to move," she said.

"Well, how about I move and you enjoy?" he suggested

She pretended to consider it for a moment. "That might work," she finally said.

One of Sirius's hands touched her face, pulling her it closer carefully. His lips touched hers softly and slowly. Gradually, his hand moved, feeling her back's soft skin. The contact caused her to shiver all over, making his heart thump faster. Her body was tense as he touched it but he could feel it slowly relaxing.

What had started slow quickly grew more and more passionate and, next thing Sirius knew, he was laying on top of her kissing her lips, her cheeks, her neck as if he would die in the moment he stopped. She responded to every movement, every touch with as much passion as he did. His hands roamed up and down her sides under her shirt, feeling every inch of her now warm skin.

It was in the moment when he started to unconsciously tug her shirt up and she cupped his face, pulling him into an ever more passionate kiss, that he realized that if they didn't stop now, they wouldn't be able to do it later. They were heading towards a big step – he couldn't take it before he knew she was okay with it. So, making use of all his strength, Sirius managed to part their lips with a groan.

"Maybe we should stop," he whispered breathless.

"No," she panted.

"Mia—"

"We are not going to stop today," she interrupted him. "I love you for caring about me being ready or not, but I assure that I am so ready you wouldn't believe. I've known for a while you are the only one I want to lose my virginity to and it is happening today."

He couldn't believe how sure she sounded, how sure she was. He also couldn't believe _that_ was about to happen. "Are you really sure?" he asked.

Mia finished pulling her shirt up and removed it, looking him right in the eyes. "I'm ready," she said.

Sirius took a deep breath and leaned down again to kiss her. "If you're ready I am too," he said right before their lips touched letting the passion take over.

---

She couldn't tell if it had been seconds, minutes or hours. Her notion of time was completely gone as seemed to be her capacity of speaking. Her skin was sticky and her heart was beating so fast it made her throat ache as she breathed.

It hadn't been perfect. She hadn't expected it to be, anyway. The awkwardness had been there and, well, the soreness too – Mia guessed that came with exploring uncharted territory. But as she rested her head on Sirius's bare chest she couldn't help thinking it had felt right… so right. She felt so much closer to him right now – like she knew a side of him nobody else did. _Well,_ she thought with a laugh, _I literally know a part of him that nobody else does_.

"What are you laughing at?" she heard Sirius breaking the silence.

"Just something I thought of," she murmured. "Something dirty."

"Shame on you," he said, shaking his head in mock disbelief as he played with her hair. "So… that was sex."

"Seems like it," she agreed in a low voice.

There was a long moment of silent awkwardness – bed talk was still pretty new to the both of them.

"I hurt you, didn't I?" he asked softly.

Mia lifted her head, looking him in the eyes. "You're not going to feel all guilty about it, are you? Because I'm sure practically every girl is in a bit of pain during her first time. Plus, I've got to confess the whole thing seemed to be promising towards the end."

"Promising," he repeated, looking at her with an eyebrow rose. He had been afraid for a moment that she might never want to do that again.

"Very promising," she repeated, leaning to kiss him on the lips.

"Enough for you to want to give it another go?" he asked once more.

"Much definitely," she assured him.

He grinned. "Great, because I really, really li…" Before he could finish, someone knocked on the door, causing Sirius to groan loudly. "Please tell me you cast a silencing charm on the door."

Mia nodded. "Right after the…" she coughed, feeling embarrassed, "contraceptive one."

"Good. Let's just ignore the knocking, then. We have better things to do," he said, leaning for another kiss. Suddenly, he noticed something and removed his lips from hers. "Wait, is it me or it's not so cold anymore?"

He was right – the room was a lot warmer now. "Cold-shield seems to be back on," she told him. "But who needs them, anyway? We've found our own way to keep each other warm."

"Indeed we have," he agreed with a playful smile all over his face.

**A/N: I had a bit of free time, so here is another chapter. Today is my dad's birthday and I'm working on a surprise party for him with my siblings, so there's lots to do. Hope you liked it. Review! **


	13. Still Christmas

It took them over two and half hours to get fully dressed and finally leave Sirius's dorm. When they arrived to the common room, only half a dozen students at the most were there – seemed like everyone had decided to disband as soon as the cold-shields were put back on.

"I'm tempted to say that, so far, this Christmas Eve is the best I've ever had," Mia declared as they strolled lazily through the seventh floor corridor, about ten or so minutes later. She looked at her watch to check the time. "And it is only half past six."

"We can make a replay of it every year from now on," Sirius suggested. "But I'm pretty sure Dumbledore won't let us use the seventh year boys' dorm to do that."

Mia laughed. "It's not really the place I'm interested in," she told him. "It's more about the company."

Sirius smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "Well, thank you, Miss Davis. I'm glad my presence is so pleasant to you."

"Definitely pleasant," she murmured, leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked.

"Right, speaking of my presence, there's something I need to tell you," he said.

She lifted her head and turned to him with a curious look on her face. "What?"

Sirius nodded at a stone bench a couple of feet away. "Let's take a seat."

Mia tensed, hearing that. Usually conversations starting with '_Let's take a seat_' were not destined to be pleasant. She swallowed hard as she followed her boyfriend to the bench and sat on the cold surface.

"So, you know my uncle Alphard died a few days ago," he said.

Mia nodded. "You mentioned it."

"Well, Dumbledore called me to his office yesterday morning while you and Lily were in the library to tell me that, apparently, uncle Alphard told the whole family to go screw themselves by leaving me a considerable portion of his possessions and the rest to my cousin Andromeda," Sirius stated.

She just stared at him for a few moments – thinking she had assumed that would be a bad conversation. "How considerable?"

"Let's just say the money he left me allows me to live rather comfortably without bothering to work for the next two to three decades," he informed her.

She opened her eyes widely. "Wow, that's… a lot," Mia mumbled, dumbstruck.

"Yeah," he said absently. "But what I am trying to tell you is that the old guy also left me an old apartment he owned in London and I'm thinking of moving there after we graduate and… and I was wondering if you wanted to do that too."

Mia stared at him in disbelief. If her brain was not fooling her, he had just asked her to move in with her – actually move in with her. "You want me to come live with you?"

He nodded. "I can't… I don't want to spend a day without seeing you. I know you're planning to start Healer Training and the hours are simply murder, so I guess between that, studying and sleeping we wouldn't have much time to see each other if you have to pop all the way to your parent's house in Wales every day—"

"But if we live together there wouldn't be such a problem," she finished for him.

"Yeah," Sirius confirmed, taking in her expression. She was shocked – he could tell that for the fact that her mouth was hanging half open as she stared at the emptiness. "Look, if you don't want to there's no problem, Mia, really. I mean, I've never been to the house. It might be a dump for all I know."

She shook her head. "I want to, Sirius. I just… wasn't expecting this at all."

He was taken aback. She was saying 'yes'? Just like that? No 'let me think about it for a few days'? "Wait, so you'll actually move in with me to the apartment after we graduate?"

Mia nodded. "Of course I will, Sirius. I've known for a while you are my future. Why should I hold it back if I can have it happening right now?"

Sirius couldn't say a word. He touched her cheek with his hand and leaned in her direction, granting her with an unbelievably passionate kiss. What had he done to deserve that girl. "You are something else, Mia Davis," he whispered against her lips. "You think Lulu will have a problem with that?"

Mia laughed softly. "Sirius, you've met Lulu," she said. "I doubt she will be bothered with the two of us living together, as long as I make sure I drop by her place to see her often." A smile seemed to be permanently stuck to her face. She felt different now, maybe because he had just asked her to move in or maybe because they had taken a gigantic step in their relationship which brought them even closer than they already were. "I really, really love you," she whispered against his lips.

"I really, really, _really_ love you too," he replied with an impish grin on his face.

"Oh, you wanna make a competition out of this?" she asked him with an eyebrow rose. "Because we don't have time right now. Christmas feast starts in fifteen minutes and we should find Lily and James. It was probably them that came knocking on the door."

"Well, if it was them, their timing sucks," Sirius replied, wrapping his arm around her waist as the two of them got up from the bench and resumed walking. "As does everyone's. Have you noticed how many times we were interrupted in the middle of snogging?"

She laughed. "That's probably related to the fact that we do that all the time."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Alright, maybe you have a point," he gave in. "But, Merlin, sometimes it's like they're aiming to catch us."

Mia shook her head smiling at his silliness. "It's a conspiracy against us."

They started descending the moving staircases until they reached the fourth floor. The Head's dorm wasn't very far away from the library. It could be accessed though a small passage behind the portrait of a plump, light-brown haired witch wearing an orange coat. There were hundreds of books around her form and she wore glasses that made her eyes look extremely small as she read one of them. She looked up from the book when she noticed Sirius and Mia standing in front of her portrait.

"Yes?" the woman asked in an extremely acute voice.

"We needed to come in to see the head students," Sirius told her.

"Do you know the password?" the portrait asked.

"No, but—"

"I can't let you in without the password," it informed him.

"We've been here before," Mia said. "Don't you remember us?"

The witch laughed in disdain. "A lot of people pass in front of my portrait. Do you think I remember every single one of them?"

"We've been _inside_ with the Heads!" Sirius specified in an annoyed tone.

The portrait shook its head. "I've told you I can't—"

"There you are!" James familiar voice said, from behind them. They turned to see him and Lily walking in their direction. "What took you so long to come here? They told us in the common room that you were in your down, so Lils and I went there knocking hours ago!"

"We were… napping," Sirius lied, looking at his girlfriend so she would back him up.

Mia coughed. "It was so cold that the only thing we could do to keep ourselves warm was…" she gave Sirius a highly suggestive look "…_napping_."

"Napping?" Lily asked in disbelief.

Sirius nodded, making a very sure expression with his face. "Yeah, you know, sleeping briefly during the day. That's the definition."

Mia bit her inner lip to keep herself from bursting in laughter – that was just the most hilarious metaphor she had heard for what they had been doing.

"But together?" the portrait asked in very outraged tone, clutching her orange coat as it she was trying to reach for her heart. "Oh, the scandal…"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Let's just go to the Great Hall," she said, turning her back to the portrait.

"How rude," it mumbled as the group started walking away.

On their way, to the Great Hall, James mentioned something about Quidditch, which lead him and Sirius to start a discussion about who was more likely to win the national championship: Puddlemore United or the Tornadoes.

"Napping?" Lily asked in low tone she and Mia walked a few feet behind the boys. "I've heard people calling it a lot of things, but _napping _is definitely a first."

Mia smiled – nothing got past her best friend. "It would be odd to refer it by its real name in front of that annoying prudish portrait."

Lily nodded. "So, how was it?" she asked, her tone lowering even more. "Did it hurt?"

Mia bit her inner lip. "I'm not sure how to define it. It's not like I have anything to compare it with. But it is definitely a very good… source of heat. It hurt but not horribly or anything. Ask me again in a week and I'm sure my explanation will be a lot better."

Her best friend chuckled. "Well, I hope our knocking wasn't too distracting."

"We got over it," Mia told her. "And you surely seem to be in a good mood even for Christmas Eve."

"Well, so do you," she countered.

"Yeah, but I've got a very good reason," she replied, nodding at Sirius.

Lily sighed. "Alright. James!" she called.

He stopped walking and turned to face Lily along with Sirius. "Yes?"

"I don't think we'll make it to the Great Hall," she told him. "Let's just tell them now."

"You were the one who wanted to wait till dinner," he pointed out.

"I've changed my mind," she replied. "I don't feel like waiting anymore."

The other two observed the interaction – the very friendly interaction – between Lily and James in confusion. She wasn't even calling him Potter anymore. Sirius's eyes met Mia's for a moment as if asking her if she knew what was going on and she shook her head in response.

James took a few steps so he was standing by Lily's side. "Alright, so this afternoon when you shot us that smartass remark about Lily and I needing to 'share the heat', she sort of snapped."

"I didn't snap!" Lily protested, elbowing him. "I just had slight breakdown because of the stress and ended up shouting a bit."

He rolled his eyes. "That's the definition of snapping Lils." He turned back to Sirius and Mia. "Snapping or not, she did start yelling at me really loud."

Sirius laughed. "That's surprising," he said sarcastically.

James glared. "You'd think it is if you let me say everything at once. She started yelling at me because I stopped asking her out," he informed his best friend.

"What?!" they chorused.

"I did," Lily admitted, blushing. "So, one thing lead to another and what we are trying to tell you now is that we are a couple now."

They stared at Lily and James for several seconds, waiting for later to start laughing and say _'just kidding!'_ Sure, they had predicted it several times but they wouldn't have placed their bets on that actually happening before Easter, at least. _Merlin, Lily Evans and James Potter are dating,_ Mia thought in disbelief. Reality was so much more unbelievable than imagination.

"Well," Sirius started after he recovered from the shock, "the only thing I can think of saying is _'finally'_!"

Mia nodded. "I make his words mine. It took you too damn long! We thought it would take longer but it was definitely long."

"Wait, you are not surprised?" James inquired in disappointment. "Not even a bit?"

"Are you kidding?" Sirius said. "Everyone has been waiting for you to happen ever since fifth year at least."

Lily turned to her new boyfriend. "There goes the surprise."

James shrugged. "Who cares about surprises? I got the girl."

---

It was late in the night when Sirius and Mia made their way back to the Common Room from the Head's dorm with the help of the Marauders Map. That particular item had saved the Marauders from getting detention several times since its creation back in May. Mia had been particularly astounded when she had first seen it – how could a bunch of seventeen year olds create such a brilliant thing?

"Seems like I can wish you a Happy Christmas now," Sirius murmured when they entered the common room. "It's past midnight."

She kissed him softly in the lips. "Happy Christmas."

"The best one I've ever had and it's only ten past midnight," he told her, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug. "Stay with me tonight," he whispered to her ears

"Sirius, that is so against the school rules," she said, taking a step back to give him a mock-condescending.

"What? Am I dating Lily now? Because James wouldn't be happy," Sirius said. "I'm alone in my dorm and you're also alone in yours. We don't want to spend the first hours of the best Christmas ever alone, do we?"

She pretended to think for a moment. "Maybe not," she agreed.

"We'll just sleep," he told her.

She raised an eyebrow. "It that a promise?"

"Only until dawn," he stated, taking a suggestive tone. "After that, I can't promise I'll be able to resist you."

Mia shook her head in disbelief. "I've created a monster when we shagged, haven't I?"

"Is that a problem?" he asked cheekily.

"Most definitely not."

**A/N: Just a little warning about next chapter - it will skip a few months... I hope you liked this one. I completly rewrote it last night because I hated the way it had turned out and wanted to post it today so you wouldn't have to wait much more. Guess that gives me a little credit, doesn't it? Feedback, please!**


	14. Going Home

**Seven**** months later**

It was early in the morning and the day was remarkably hot, considering the usual temperatures in that part of Wales. Mia sighed as she finished packing the box with her things. It felt so…odd. She didn't feel like she was leaving home or anything – the only things that tied her to that house were probably the short memories of her and her deceased sister playing out in the garden. It was hard to believe that had been so long ago…

Now, here she was, two days after graduation, getting ready to move in with Sirius, the boy that a year and a half ago she had found beyond her reach but turned out to love her just as much as she loved him.

"It's hard to believe you are leaving this place," Lulu said from the doorway. She nodded at the two boxes on top of her bed. "You're only taking that with you? No furniture?"

She shook her head. "Sirius told me the will said that the apartment was furnished. And most of my stuff is in my school truck downstairs," Mia told her. "I just packed the things that mattered. Plus, a bunch of sheets, towels… well, house stuff."

Lulu nodded, taking a seat on Mia's bed. A face was mixture of pride and sadness. "This is probably a good time to tell you that I am giving my resignation letter to your parents as soon as you walk out of this house."

"What?!" Mia asked in disbelief. "Why, Lulu?"

The other woman sighed. "It's just time, Mia. With you gone, there is nothing tying me to this place anymore."

"Of course there is! This is the place where you live!"

"Not anymore," she told her. "I got myself a flat in Holyhead. It's just a couple of miles from here."

"But Lulu—"

"Just because I am quitting my job here, it doesn't mean I'm quitting you, Mia," she explained. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. From now on I'll just be your Lulu living in her own place and not working for your parents."

Mia looked at her soon-to-be-former nanny sadly, taking a seat by her side on the bed. "What are you going to do now? Where are you going to live?"

"There's an opening for a job in a Bookshop just across the street of my new flat," Lulu told her. "You know I've always been a sucker for reading, so the employee's discount will serve me well."

Mia couldn't help laughing, against her best efforts. "Everything is changing isn't it?" she whispered. Now that school was over, changes seemed to be constant: she was moving to her own place and starting Healer Training in two months while Sirius would be training in the ministry to become a Curse Breaker, Lulu was quitting, Elizabeth was moving to France to attend a very prestigious Healing Academy and Lily and James were headed to Auror training.

Lulu nodded. "That's what happens when you grow up," she said with a small smile on her face. "Now, I'd get downstairs if I were you because that boyfriend of yours must be arriving at any moment and you don't want to make him wait."

With another sigh, Mia leaned her head to Lulu's shoulder. "Make sure you also drop by my place sometime. I don't want to be the only one paying visits."

The house's doorbell rang before Lulu could respond. "There he is," she murmured. "Don't worry, I'll show up so often you'll get tired of seeing my face all the time. Now, get going, young lady. You have a long day ahead of you. Are you sure you don't want any help?"

She shook her head as she got up. "Sirius and I want to make the house presentable before we let anyone come over."

Lulu got up too. "If you say so…"

Side by side, the two of them walked out of the room, going downstairs in order to let Sirius into the house.

"Hey," she greeted him with a smile as soon as she opened the door.

"Hey," Sirius replied, pecking her lips softly as a greeting. "Ready for the big day?"

Lulu chuckled from the place where she was standing. "One would think you'd say that about your wedding day."

Sirius rolled his eyes. _Definitely one of these days, _he thought, but _not for another year or two_. "How much do you hate me for stealing your kid?"

She bit her inner lip when she heard him referring Mia as 'her kid'. "Just a bit," Lulu said. "But I'd have to let her go eventually. The girl needs to live her own life. Take care of her for me, will you?"

"Always," he promised.

Mia coughed. "Can you two stop talking like I'm not in the room?" she requested. "It is annoying."

"Right," he mumbled. "I guess it is time we start with the move…"

---

"I think we're here," Sirius announced, pointing at a street sign around half an hour after he and Mia had left her (now former) house. "Charlwood Street. Now we have to find number 78. The apartment is in the lower ground floor."

"We're near 90. It mustn't be too far away," Mia pointed out, taking in her surroundings. She'd been to London several times before but she had never been as excited about it as today. The muggle road was surrounded by several Georgian-style houses painted in light colours and there were trees every few yards.

Sirius smiled at her and took her hand as they strolled calmly, like any eighteen-year-old couple taking a simple walk.

Reducing their boxes to the size of a wallet so they could fit in Mia's purse had been a useful idea, allowing them to walk freely like any other couple. Mia counted the number of the buildings attentively. 81…80…79… "This is it," she whispered, pointing at a building painted cream white that was shadowed by the tree that stood in front of it.

Sirius let go of her arm, walking a few steps ahead of her in order to open the dark metal gate leading to the outside stairs that made the way to the building's lower ground floor. Mia followed him downstairs and joined him facing the apartment's front door.

He removed his wand from his muggle clothes, tapping it on the door's lock. It opened with a little 'click' and Sirius glanced at Mia. "Here we go," he murmured before fully opening the door.

Even in the dark, they could tell the entrance hall was a cramped little thing. They made their way out of it and entered another dark division connected to it. With a wave of his wand, Sirius made all the curtains in the house open, letting the outside light fill the divisions.

Sirius and Mia found themselves in a large living room whose furniture was covered with plain white sheets. The room's walls were painted creamy white that contrasted with the wooden floor. There was a fireplace in one of the sides of the room and the walls on either side of it had embedded bookcases. Classic and simple.

"Doesn't seem bad," Sirius said, removing one of the dusty sheets from what revealed itself to be a beige sofa.

"Are you kidding?" Mia asked in amazement. "It's perfect so far." She looked around once more and it was only then that she noticed that the living room opened to some sort of patio. She walked in the French door's direction, passing right next to a large dinner table, and peaked through the glass to see a small inner garden that seemed to be the source of light for the interior divisions.

The surprises kept coming when Sirius opened a door right next to the kitchen that he supposed to lead to the bedroom. He was right, there was a bedroom after that door… but there also was a spiral staircase leading to an upper room he had never imagined to exist. Turned out, that was the master bedroom, after all.

"Bless good old uncle Alphard," Sirius mumbled, sitting on the unmade four-poster bed, remarkably similar to the ones in Hogwarts. "And I actually never thought I'd get anything good from that family… though I'm pretty sure my dear parents didn't let the bloke stay on family tree long, after what he pulled with his will."

"I guess we can only thank him," Mia said, looking around. "Merlin, this place is a lot better than I imagined."

"Think we can make a home out of this?" Sirius asked.

Mia sighed and walked in his direction, sitting on his lap. She looked at him straight in the eyed before talking. "My home is wherever you are."

He smiled and kissed her lips lovingly. "Mine is wherever _you_ are," he whispered against her lips when they broke apart. "I can't wait to be able to wake up by your side without you having to hurry away before any of my dorm mates show up."

"Then we'd better start cleaning the place because I'm not sleeping in that unmade dusty bed you're sitting in," she warned him.

Sirius nodded in return. "The sooner we're done with the cleaning, the earlier we can start with the Christening," he told her with an irreverent grin. "You don't want to live in an unholy place, do you? The house has more divisions than I expected, tough—"

"And, let me guess, you want to round them all," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Eventually. James's dad always tells us that when we do something, we should do it well," Sirius stated.

She crossed her arms against her chest. "I don't think that's what he meant, you randy git."

Sirius smiled and kissed her neck. "Works the same way to me."

---

It was late in the afternoon when Sirius and Mia finally declared the house ready to live in – all rooms cleaned and at least three of them Christened.

"Well, wasn't this an enjoyable move?" Sirius asked her with a silly grin on his face as they sat on the sofa, taking in the result of all their work.

Mia's head leaned to his shoulder. "You say that because you're not the one who had to fight the doxies in the cellar without calling the neighbours' attention."

"I was out trying to get us lunch! You could have waited until I came back!" he countered.

She shrugged. "I was bored."

"And you almost got yourself poisoned," Sirius told her, shaking his head. "Rushing you to St. Mungo's would be a blasting way to end our first day living together."

"Well I—" The doorbell cut Mia's words, making her groan. "And the visits start."

"I'll get it," Sirius said. He packed her cheek before getting up and walking to the entrance hall.

Mia heard him opening the door, followed by James's voice telling his best friend that something wasn't his idea.

"_What the…" _she heard her boyfriend start.

"_Don't finish that sentence, young man!" _a female unfamiliar voice said in a warning tone. _"Just because you are not under my roof, I won't have you cursing in front of me, Sirius Orion Black."_

"_Ma, leave him alone," _James said.

Ma… so it was Judith Potter, Mia thought. James's mother and the closest thing Sirius had to one.

"_Sorry," _Sirius apologized in a voice that reminded Mia of a little boy who had just been caught by his mother stealing cookies from the cookie jar. _"I just wasn't expecting you to come here."_

"_Well, as you never bothered to bring that girl of yours to the manor so we could meet her, we had to come to her,"_ Mrs. Potter replied, making Mia shiver. Judy Potter had come all the way from Scotland just to meet her. _"Shame on you. Don't you agree, Lily dear?"_

"_Yes, I do, __Judy."_ So, Lily was there too… Mia considered never talking to her best friend again for not warning her of what was coming.

"_Now, will you let us in or what?" _Mrs. Potter asked.

"_Sure, sure," _Sirius said.

Mia got up before she saw him re-entering the room, followed by Lily, James and a couple in their middle sixties, who she concluded to be Judy and Christopher Potter. The first impression Mia got of Judy Potter was how beautiful, despite her age. Her wavy short auburn hair had several streaks of white but that didn't take any effect from her kind smile. Mr. Potter was practically an older carbon copy of his son – it was difficult to describe him in any other way.

"And you must be Mia," Mrs. Potter said, approaching Mia and pulling her into an unexpected hug. "Finally I get to meet the girl who made an honest man out of our Sirius. You are prettier than James told us."

"Excuse me for having trouble describing my best mate's girlfriend," James mumbled in annoyance from his spot, causing Lily and Sirius to laugh. "You should have asked _him_, not me."

"Well, I'm sure he would certainly emphasise her beauty more than you did," his father said. "But he might exaggerate a bit."

"What's there to exaggerate, Christopher?" Mrs. Potter asked in a lively tone, before turning to Mia again. "It is such a pleasure to meet you, Mia. I'm Judy, James's mother, and, well, partially Sirius's too."

Mia was impressed at how talkative the woman could be. It was almost like a classier version of Lulu, even though Mia doubted she wouldn't have a problem with teenagers snogging behind closed doors in her place. "It is nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Potter."

The older woman shook her head. "Call me Judy, Mia. Mrs. Potter was my husband's mother," she said, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Horrid woman."

"Mother was not that bad," James's father said, approaching Mia and his wife. "I'm Christopher Potter. It is very nice to finally meet you in person."

"You too, Mr Potter," she replied nervously.

"Now, Sirius, be a dear and show us around the house," Judy told her adoptive son.

Sirius gave Mia an apologetic look to which she responded with a shrug, as if telling him it was fine. Judy and Christopher Potter had been a very pleasant surprise after all. For sure, she'd much rather having the two of them as her possibly future in-laws that Walburga and Orion Black.

"Thanks for the warning," Mia told Lily and James sarcastically after his parents and Sirius left the room.

"I'm sorry," Lily apologized. "We only found out they were coming seconds before apparating here."

"And we knew you'd be fine," James said. "My mother loves everyone. Well, almost everyone but I doubt she would put you in the same category as the Malfoys and Sirius's parents."

Mia smiled. "Yeah, your mother really is something."

She couldn't help being amazed at how the world worked. People could be so different from each other… While there were those, like James's parents or Lulu, who could unconditionally love someone that wasn't even related to them by blood, others, like Susan and Phillip Davis, couldn't spare a bit of caring for their own daughter. That made her think in which category she would fit in. _Hopefully in the first one,_ she thought.

**A/N: Surprise, surprise. Here's another update sooner than I expected. As can probably guess, now this fic was walking towards the end (worry not, there is a sequel under development) and there will be several jumps in time to key-moments. Feedback Please!**

**And, by the way, I am looking for a new beta as my previous one is drowning in work (sometimes so am I...), so if anyone is interested, just point that out in a review and I'll check your beta-reader page (I'm asking you readers because I'd rather have someone who is already faliliar with this fic).**

**(Had to remove the chapter for a moment to correct something, sorry!)**


	15. Up on the Mountain

**One year and ****a half later – December 1979**

It was very early in the morning. Too early even for Mia, who usually didn't have a problem with being awake before seven. But that was hers and Sirius's first day of Christmas vacations and she wanted to use it to catch up some sleep. Unfortunately, her body wasn't exactly agreeing with her and had brought her to the cold floor of the bathroom, where she sat right next to the toilet. Of all the times she could have gotten sick.

And being sick wasn't the worse. The worse was that, as a trainee healer, Mia knew a large paraphernalia or reasons for her to be throwing up at six in the morning, being the most likely pregnancy.

_I can't be, can I? _She asked herself. She and Sirius were always so careful… It might have been the leftover roast she had eaten last night – it didn't taste so well, after all. But she was too scared to even make the simple spell that would tell her if she was expecting or not.

One would think Lily and James would beat them with the whole pregnancy thing – they had gotten married about five months before, with Mia and Sirius as their respective Maid of Honour and Best Man, in a simple ceremony at Potter manor that had brought Judy Potter to tears. Lily and James hadn't wanted to wait – the war was worsening with Death Eater attacks covering the _Daily Prophet_'s headlines every other week and people, mostly muggle-borns and their families, disappearing, which made Lily a possible target. Sirius and Mia had decided to wait as they were not apparent targets to any of them and they were happy with living the way they were.

Mia sighed, getting up from the floor. She flushed the toilet and walked back to her the room after she brushing her teeth and taking a potion to reduce the sickness. There, Sirius slept soundly on the bed, completely oblivious to what was going on. Mia laid her head on his chest and he unconsciously wrapped one arm around her – she would never get tired of staying like that.

Would he be happy if she was, indeed, pregnant? They were just nineteen. _Two years._ They still had two years of hard training ahead for their future jobs. Two years before they could will themselves to have the life of normal people, which would involve decent hours of work and time to spend with family and friends. Would he give her one of him smiles and tell her none of that mattered? She drifted to sleep hoping he would.

The sun was high when she finally woke up with the feeling to a kiss being planted on her lips. "Time to wake up," she heard Sirius whisper to her ear. "You need to start packing."

She sighed and opened one eye to see him sitting on the edge of her bed. It took her a few seconds to register what he had said. Packing? "What do you mean by 'start packing'?" she asked him in a sleepy voice.

"I mean 'start packing, we're leaving'," he specified. "Come on, get your lazy arse out of bed, or you will miss your Christmas present."

"Christmas is two days from today," she moaned. "We have time."

Sirius shook his head. "It's an early present," he told her with a smile. "Do you have any idea how much I had to work to plan this?"

Mia sighed and started to move, shifting to a sitting position. "Fine. What am I supposed to pack?"

"Snow clothes," he stated as she began to get up and walking to the bathroom.

"I'd better like that surprise," she warned him before closing the door behind her.

He smiled to himself. _Oh, you will, _he thought.

---

He hadn't been kidding about the snow. About ten minutes earlier, Sirius had taken her to Lily and James's place saying that the surprise had been planned by him and James, who seemed to be in a remarkable good mood, to surprise her and Lily. And now here they were landing on the snow covered ground of what seemed to be a mountain. A few yards away, there was a spacious wooden chalet whose roofs were also covered with snow.

"Where are we? The Alps?" Mia asked.

"More specifically the French Alps," a very familiar voice said behind them. Mia and Lily turned to see Elizabeth Harper standing right behind them with a huge smile on her face. "Surprise."

"Elizabeth! What are you doing here?!" Lily asked in disbelief.

"Apparently I'm your Christmas gift," the blonde girl told them. "Well, along with the four-day-long snow vacations in a muggle charm-hotel with all included."

Mia looked up at Sirius with a smile. All she had really been craving for lately was a few days away from the city and that would, hopefully, make her stop worrying about… _that._ "You're full of surprises, aren't you?"

"I told you you'd like it," he said.

She kissed his cheek and turned to Elizabeth, taking a few steps ahead before enveloping her in a hug. "It's great to see you," Mia told her when she pulled away.

"Yeah," Lily added, now taking her turn in hugging her friend. "We haven't laid eyes on you since my wedding!"

"Not by my choice. Healer training doesn't leave me a lot of free time to travel," she replied. "Weren't Remus and Peter coming too?"

James shook his head. "It's full moon tomorrow. Wormtail offered to stay with Moony."

"Pete actually seemed quite relieved to find an excuse to stay," Sirius added. "I think he might have a date while we are here or something. Can't really blame him for wanting to stay – you know how rarely he gets one of those."

"Wait, Remus will have to spend Christmas night… like that?" Elizabeth asked in horror. "That's terrible."

Sirius nodded. "We were going to cancel the plans when we found out but Moony insisted we came."

"Good old self-sacrificing Remus," Mia mumbled. "Will he ever change?

"I doubt it," her boyfriend replied.

James coughed and approached Lily, wrapping a protective arm around her. "Guys, I know it is great staying out here talking and all but I'd like to take my wife to the hotel before she freezes."

Lily elbowed him on the ribs. "Don't you go all 'caveman' overprotective on me, James Potter," she said.

"I'm not going 'caveman overprotective' on you. What does that even mean?" he protested.

"Hey, hey, no fighting," Elizabeth told them before turning to James. "How about I take Lily and Mia to my room so we can talk a bit while you and Sirius go take care of the check-in and go break a few bones skiing?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Are you insinuating we can't ski, Harper?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes while Mia patted her boyfriend's arm. "Just try to keep yourself in one piece because I'd rather not do anything related to healing during this trip," she told him before the three women left.

Shaking his head, Sirius turned to his best friend. "Just look at the faith they have in us."

James shrugged. "Women."

---

The time they spent talking to Elizabeth reminded Lily and Mia of how they missed their time in Hogwarts. It was hard to believe more than one year had passed since they had graduated. Now, one them was married, other lived in a different country and the other was… possibly pregnant. Mia groaned internally at how every single thought she had seemed to remind her of that fact.

"Sometimes it seems just like I never left," Elizabeth was saying. "Just the other day Barbara Lasher showed up at the hospital."

"Lasher?" Mia inquired. "Merlin you have to be the unluckiest person in the world to run into _her_ in another country. What was she doing there, anyway?"

Elizabeth smirked. "That's the most unbelievable part of it," she told them. "She was there with her _husband_. He had a minor heart attack during their honeymoon and, let me tell you, I thought at first that he was her grandfather or something. The guy looked pretty loaded. His name was Brian or Byron… well, his last name was Vane."

"The little gold-digger," Lily murmured.

"Yeah and just a week ago it was Ludo who showed up in the hospital with a broken leg," Elizabeth told them.

"Ludo Bagman?" Mia inquired. "Your ex?"

"Yeah," the blonde said. "He's the new beater to the Wimbourne Wasps and they came here to France in order to play against the Quiberon Quafflepunchers. We ended up spending a few time together after I… Mia, are you okay?"

She shook her head no. Just a couple of seconds before a wave of nausea had hit her all of a sudden. "I need to use the bathroom," Mia managed to say before speeding to the small division, closing the door behind her.

Lily and Elizabeth stared at each other for a moment before running after their friend. Elizabeth was the first to knock the door. "Is everything alright?"

"_Yeah, just great," _her answer came from the inside.

"Do you want us to get Sirius for you?" Lily inquired.

"_No! Just give me a minute,"_ Mia told them.

The two friends looked at each other again. "Is there something wrong with her?" Elizabeth asked in a whisper.

Lily shrugged. "No idea," she whispered back.

The bathroom's door opened a few minutes later and Mia came out, looking awfully pale. She didn't utter a word to Lily or Elizabeth as she walked to the sofa where they had been sitting before.

"Mia, what was that?" Elizabeth asked her.

"Nothing," she replied, taking a deep breath as she covered her face with her hands. _Damn_ _it, damn it, damn it, _Mia thought. She felt so damn helpless!

"'Nothing' wouldn't make you be sick like that," the blonde countered. "Are… are you pregnant?"

Mia removed her hands from her face. "I don't know," she admitted. "I don't remember us ever forgetting to cast the spell but I just don't know."

"You don't… Mia! You're a healer! You know it just takes one potion in order to find out if you are pregnant or not," Elizabeth told her. "Why didn't you take it?"

"Maybe she doesn't want to find out," Lily stepped in, taking a seat by her friend's side. "You didn't take the potion because you were afraid of what you would find out, didn't you?"

She nodded. "I want kids," Mia said. "I really do but I'm not sure if I am ready to start having them _right now_. I don't even know if Sirius is ready. This is just so… confusing."

"I know it is," the redhead said. "But you need to know. The longer you take, the more confused you'll get." She gave her a small smile. "And, if it helps, James took it pretty well when I told him."

Mia's mouth opened and closed several times after she heard that. "Wait, what? Are you…?"

Lily nodded, her smile widening. "James and I were going to announce it tonight but I guess it works better now. Judy and Christopher looked so excited about becoming grandparents when we told them last night."

"Wow," Elizabeth mumbled, pulling a chair from a nearby table and sitting on it. "Our Lily is having a baby."

"It still sounds sort of unreal to me," she told them. "I know what you're feeling, Mia. Just take the test and everything will be a lot clearer."

"Right, and I assume one of you miraculously has the potion in the middle of your luggage," she said sarcastically.

"I can apparate in the nearest wizarding village and get it for you," Elizabeth offered. "Do you want me to?"

She sighed. "You won't give up until you make me take the potion, will you?"

"Most definitely not," the blonde replied.

Mia was silent for a moment. It wasn't like not knowing would make her less pregnant if that was the case, after all. "Alright then," she gave in, turning to Lily. "At least I won't be the only one of us who's knocked up if it comes down positive."

---

The little bottle filled with silvery liquid rested on the table right in front of her. Just looking at it made her think – maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she was actually having a kid. It was funny how she had started to feel better right after Lily had told her about the baby. She and Sirius would manage to figure out how to raise a kid and Lulu would probably be around to help all the time.

"Just take it," Lily said. "The anticipation is the worse part of it."

Mia took a deep breath before reaching for the little bottle and opening it. She took a few seconds just to stare at it before taking a sip and immediately made a disgusted face. "Ugh, this is horrible!"

"Horrible how?" Elizabeth asked in expectation. "Too bitter or too sweet?"

"Too bitter," she replied, still making a face.

"Well, no pregnancy for you, then," Elizabeth stated.

There was a moment of silence after that was said until Mia got up from the chair. "Er… I think I'm going downstairs and find something to eat. This taste in my mouth is killing me," Mia lied, trying to excuse herself to leave the room.

"Yeah, sure," Lily said as her friend started to leave.

Mia made her way out of the room quickly, taking a deep breath when she reached the hallway. She didn't really know if she should feel relieved or disappointed. In one hand, she and Sirius wouldn't have to pull all sorts of tricks in order to be able to escape work and spend a decent amount of time with their kid; in the other hand, it felt like a little part of her heart, the one that had grown to love the baby that had never been there, was empty now. She wondered what would have happened if the potion had been sweet instead of bitter.

She was so distracted that she didn't even notice she wasn't the only person in the hallway until she crashed into someone.

"Er…sorry," she mumbled before looking up and noticing that she had actually crashed into Sirius.

"Mia? What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. "You look upset."

"I…hum… I need to talk to you," she said quickly.

He nodded, putting one arm around her shoulders. "Come on, let's go to our room," he told her softly as he walked her there.

The room was the one right in front of Elizabeth's and, just like hers, its walls were made of wood and the whole decoration was in tones of brown. Mia walked to the bed and sat on top of the covers with her legs crossed. Sirius settled himself by her side and waited for her to start talking.

"I've just taken a pregnancy testing potion," she confessed.

"Wh… what?" he asked, looking at her in disbelief. "You're…"

Mia shook her head. "No. False alarm. It's probably just a stomach bug."

"Oh," Sirius mumbled. "Why didn't you say something earlier? I'd have been there with you."

"I wanted to make sure before I told you anything," she murmured with a sigh. "Now I can't stop wondering what would happen if it wasn't a false alarm."

"We'd manage," he assured her.

"You think?"

He nodded, wrapping one arm around her. "I _know_. We would have freaked out a bit in the beginning but we would eventually realize that we have enough bad examples to teach us how to raise a kid decently. Still, I'd rather that happened after I'm done with the training."

"Yeah, me too," she agreed.

"But if, by some reason, they come earlier, I'll love our kids just the same," Sirius assured her.

Mia leaned her face against his shoulder. "That is exactly what I needed to hear."

---

The rest of their small vacations went smoothly. Christmas night had been spent with the five of them talking and laughing in front of the fire while several muggles watched some TV broadcast. In the end, those four days seemed to have passed in four-hours and sooner than any of them expected, they were saying their goodbyes to Elizabeth, and taking their portkey back to London.

"Home sweet home," Lily murmured after she landed on hers and James's living room.

"We can always go back there next year," James mumbled.

Sirius chuckled. "With a crying newborn?" he asked doubtfully. "I doubt it, Prongs."

"Oh, just…" James wasn't able to finish what he was about to say because, at that very same moment, the doorbell started ringing.

"Oh, come on! We've just got here!" Lily whined.

"I'll get it," James said with a groan, walking out of the room.

"Shouldn't you sit down or something?" Mia asked Lily.

She rolled her eyes. "Not you too," the redhead moaned.

"_Professor Dumbledore?"_ they heard James say.

"_Good evening, Mr. Potter,"_ Dumbledore greeted.

Sirius, Mia and Lily looked at each other and silently decided to go see what was going on. They exited the living room to see their former headmaster standing right in front of James.

"Mrs. Potter, Mr. Black, Miss Davis," he acknowledged when he saw them approaching him.

"Professor," Lily replied.

"I am afraid I'm not here to give you good news," Dumbledore announced. "There had been a Death Eater attack to Potter Manor."

James immediately tensed. "Sir, my parents…"

"I am afraid they didn't survive, Mr. Potter," the old professor informed him. "My condolences."

**A/N: I hadn't planned to take this long to upsate, but academic life got on my way... One more chapter here, just 4 our 5 (not sure if I am going to split one in two) to come. I hope you like this oned. Review!**

**P.S: Still looking for a beta.**


	16. Fighting Back

Most of the wizarding world was in shock with the Potter's deaths. They had been the first non muggle or muggle born fatalities by the hand of Voldemort, who almost nobody dared to refer by that name, a fact that filled everyone with panic because now an even wider range of potential targets. The war was more and more out of control.

The funeral had been attended by hundreds of wizards and witches who had nothing but good things to say about Judith and Christopher Potter. James, as it was expected, was a complete wreck and Sirius wasn't much better. He kept forcing himself to look alright, to stay strong so his best friend wouldn't have to worry about anything but grieving, which was worrying Mia a lot.

"You really should rest, Sirius," Mia whispered to him they arrived to their apartment from the funeral. "You haven't stopped for the past two days. Preparing the wake, the funeral…You must be exhausted."

"James was in no condition of taking care of things," Sirius replied in a low voice, sinking in the sofa.

"Well, neither were you," she told him, sitting by his side. "I haven't said a word yet, Sirius but you're just as bad as James. Judy and Christopher took care of you for two years and you loved them like they were your parents. I am grieving and I wasn't half as close to them as you are. I can only try to imagine how you are feeling."

"I'm fine," he said though his teeth.

Mia shook her head. "You're not fine," she whispered, reaching for his hand. "You know, a little less than eight years ago I was sitting alone by the lake in Hogwarts feeling pretty sad. But there was this boy that showed up and didn't leave me alone until I talked about it. That made me feel a lot better. And now that boy is the one that is feeling sad… please let me do the same for him."

Taking a deep breath, Sirius turned his face to her. He remembered that day – their relationship had changed from that day on and they had become sort of each other's confidents. He just couldn't deny anything from that pleading look in her eyes. "Everything was going so great," he murmured, "We were together, James had gotten married and is having a kid, Remus found a job and Peter is probably dating someone, seeing as he is never around anymore… And then, he strikes again. You-know-who. He kills the only two great parents I've known. Will he ever stop? Will we ever have a chance to be in peace and happy?"

Mia looked him in the eyes. "I don't know the answer for that, Sirius," she whispered. "All I know is that peace won't come just by itself; we have to fight for it. Dumbledore said something to me and Lily right after the funeral. There will be meeting in Hogwarts a week from today and he wants us to be there. I don't know what that is about but, knowing him, I assume it must be related to some plan to bring _him _down. I want to be there, Sirius."

He sighed and pulled her closer. Mia was right. If they wanted peace, they needed to fight for it. "_We_ will be there," he promised her. "We will."

---

**One Week Later**

It was past midnight when Sirius and Mia arrived to Hogwarts. The week had passed rather slowly, probably because they had been so curious about this reunion called by Dumbledore. It had to be done very late in the night in or there would be the risk of running into some student.

The Great Hall was filled with about thirty people, some that young couple recognized, and others that they didn't. Lily, James and Remus stood by one of the tables talking to Professor McGonagall, while Peter sat by their side, blushing like a tomato as Bertha Jorkins blabbed next to him.

"Hey, isn't that Lulu?" Sirius asked his girlfriend in a whisper.

Mia looked to where he was pointing and was surprised to see her former nanny. "Yeah, it's her. I had no idea she was coming."

"She probably had no idea you were coming either. Why don't you so say 'hi' to her while I go save us seats next to Lily and the guys?" he suggested.

"Tell them I won't take long."

Sirius nodded and kissed her cheek softly before walking in his friends' direction, while Mia turned and started to approach Lulu. She was talking to someone but Mia couldn't tell who – two redhead men were on the way. It took her just a few seconds to reach her former nanny and finally identify who she was talking to – Gabriel McKinnon.

"Mia, I had no idea you were here," Lulu said immediately. Her face was a mixture of surprise and nervousness.

She chuckled. "I could just tell you the same," Mia replied before turning to Gabriel. "It's nice to see you, Mr. McKinnon."

"Please, call me Gabriel," the blonde man told her. "It is good to see you two. How are you doing? Lucy mentioned something about you being a trainee Healer."

"I am," Mia confirmed. "I've started the training last year."

"I've always thought you'd end up making history research or something," Lulu pointed out, "seeing how you liked history so much."

Mia shrugged. "I like healing too."

"I know, I know," Lulu told her. "I was just saying… Oh, and, by the way, _they _are here."

She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "They?"

"Your… er… Susan and Phillip," her former nanny specified.

Mia shook her head in disbelief. "Well, guess this is my first chance to see them in two years. How nice."

Gabriel coughed quite uncomfortably, forcing himself not to look at Mia.

"I think Dumbledore has just arrived," Lulu whispered.

"Oh, I'm going to find Sirius, then."

---

The meeting had been tense. The headmaster had proposed the creation of an organization – the Order of the Phoenix – whose purpose would solely be fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Several questions had came up: Why wouldn't the ministry act itself? How were they supposed to be organized? What made him think they could win? In the end, Dumbledore answered every single one of those questions, explained the risks (the very extensive risks) and informed them that those who wanted to join the order were supposed to come back to another meeting in the next day.

Mia had decided already – she wanted to be part of it. She was sick of hanging around just praying that the war would end without her doing anything for that purpose. That would change now. By her side, Sirius looked sort of nervous. She wanted to ask him what was wrong but maybe waiting for them to arrive home would be a good idea.

"Amelia," a familiar female voice asked behind her. Mia turned on the chair to see Susan Davis standing there with her husband by her side. "What are you doing here?"

"Dumbledore invited me," she said coldly as she got up.

Phillip coughed. "We haven't seen you at home lately," he pointed out. "Still at school?"

"I'm nineteen. I haven't been in school for almost two years. You haven't seen me at home because I moved out," Mia told them. "I sent you a note but you probably missed it."

"Probably," Susan said simply, tuning her face to Sirius. "And you are… Darius, isn't it?"

"Sirius," he corrected her, getting up too.

"Oh, well, it was nice to see you two," Phillip said. "We're just going to say goodbye to Albus and leave."

Mia looked away as they left one more time. She had actually hoped they would, for once, have a decent conversation when Susan had approached her but apparently that wasn't meant to happen. "Let's go home," she murmured to Sirius, who nodded in response.

---

The worried look on Sirius's face came back in the moment they landed on their doorstep. He opened the apartment's door and the two of them walked in silently.

I was only when they arrived to their bedroom that Mia dared to ask anything. "What's wrong?"

He bit his lower lip. "I… hum… I don't…"

"Sirius, you don't what?"

"I… you… you can't get in the order," Sirius told her.

Mia's eyed widened and she looked at him in disbelief. "What?" she asked in an angry voice. "What did you say?"

"You know what I said," he told her.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said though her teeth. "Sirius, you don't have the right to tell me what to do!"

"It's too dangerous, Mia! Can't you understand?"

"It is dangerous to _everyone_," she told him.

"Mia, I just… I don't want you to be exposed to danger!" he said

"Oh yeah?" Mia asked furious. "Then maybe you should go someplace else because Merlin knows you might roll over me while we slept and I would choke to death. That might be dangerous. And by someplace else I mean not in this apartment, you chauvinistic idiot!"

"Oh, come on! You're not serious!" He said in exasperation. "Is it so difficult to understand—"

She approached him, glaring at him menacingly. "You can bet I am serious and no, I don't want to understand. If I were you, I'd leave before I use my wand and show you just how much _non defenceless_ I can be!"

Sirius shook his head in disbelief as he left – she so was overreacting. Was it so hard for her to understand he just didn't want her to get hurt?!

As he exited the house, Sirius wondered where he was supposed to go now. Moony's place? It was miles away and he didn't really feel like apparating that far. Wormtail's? Definitely not, considering he still lived with his hag of a mother. That left Lily and James.

---

"Mia did what?" James asked as he and his best friend.

"She kicked me out," he repeated.

"Obviously because you did something," Lily said, entering the room holding two butterbeers. She gave a bottle to each of them and sat by James's side. "What did you do?"

Sirius sighed. "I just told her I didn't think she should join the Order," he said.

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're such an arse! Why shouldn't she? She was pretty good at DADA, she's a trainee healer, which is always someone good to have around in case someone gets hurt…"

"What if she's the one who gets hurt?" Sirius asked. That was the whole point of his worry – he didn't want her to be harmed in any way.

"Padfoot," James started, "considering we are at a war, she may very well get hurt with or without joining the Order. If she does join it, at least she won't be fighting alone."

"I know that," Sirius breathed. Of course he knew she could easily be killed by the Death Eaters. That was all he could think about since James's parents had died – she might be a target because of her good-for-nothing parents who spent their whole time chasing after You-Know-Who.

"By telling her she shouldn't join, you're saying she's not good enough to defend herself," Lily said. She continued before he was able to protest. "I know you don't mean it, but that's what you're letting out, Sirius. No wonder she is angry."

"Look, all I want is for her to be safe," Sirius explained. "Mia is my constant; she's the one that made me who I am now. I just… I hate to think she might… I know Mia can do unbelievable things with her wand in a duel but so did a lot of people who ended up dead. I can't lose her."

"Then go tell her that," Lily told him. "Merlin, you guys can be so dense. Tell her what you just told us; let her know you are worried. But you can't keep her from fighting, if that is what she wants to do. Look, I am joining the order too. I want to help creating a world that is safe for my son. James is not happy with that but he respects it."

"It scares the wits out of me," James stepped in. "Especially because Lils is pregnant. Nobody likes to think their loved ones are in danger but sometimes we just have to let them go ahead and trust them. I know that I'm going to be there to protect her. Now, you get up, go home and talk to Mia."

Sirius sighed. "She was so angry…"

"Well, that's your own fault," Lily pointed out. "Now, do your job and make it up to her because James and I need to sleep."

"Yeah, get the hell out of our sight, Padfoot," James told him.

---

Mia groaned when she heard the door of the apartment opening and closing. What part of _'get out of this apartment'_ hadn't he understood? Telling her she shouldn't take part in the order… might as well calling her a damsel in distress, which she certainly wasn't. _Stupid arse! _

When she heard the footsteps outside the door, Mia shifted on the bed so her back was turned to the door – she wasn't really feeling like facing him right now. He knocked on the door and, even though she hadn't given him any sort of response, the door opened and he entered the room.

"Are you awake?" he asked in a whisper.

Mia didn't turn to him. "Go away," she replied in a very low voice

"I'm sorry," he apologised.

She didn't respond for a moment. "I am not defenceless. Is it so hard to understand?"

"I know," he said. "And that was not what I meant, Mia. Lily had already lectured me for what I did. I'm sorry I made you feel angry."

She sighed and shifted back on the bed, now turning to face him. "You're an arse, Sirius."

"Lily has already covered that one too," he told her, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I shouldn't have told you shouldn't join the order. But I was… I mean, I am scared. I know you can defend yourself but so did Judy and Christopher and they are dead. I love you more than I love myself and if anything happened to you, if you died…" He couldn't finish the sentence.

Mia looked him in the eyes and finally understood. He was terrified for her. "What would happen if I died?"

He shook his head. "I don't even want to think of it," he told her. "But I know for a fact that a part of me – the best part of me – would die too. I can't bear thinking of living in a world without you there."

She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting back the tears that were threatening to come out. "Don't you think I feel the same?" she asked through her teeth. "Every time you leave this house I wonder if it is the last time I will see you. I can't imagine how much it would hurt to live without you!"

Sirius lay down on the bed and pulled her to him, trying to comfort her silently. She rested her head on his chest and immediately felt relieved.

"This is why I want to fight – so the fear will be gone," she told him. "I want to get in the Order; I _will_ get in the order. But I will be careful because I don't want part of you to die with me.

She felt him nod and there were several moments of silence when he just caressed her hair. They were both scared… terrified of losing each other in that war. Fighting was just too… stupid.

"Am I forgiven for being such an idiot?"

Mia sighed. "Yes, you are."

******A/N: V**ery, very close to an end. Turns out, there are just two more chapters and then... sequel, which I have practically rewrote in the past few nights. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Review!


	17. Hope is Born

As time passed, Voldemort and his Death Eaters stroke more frequently and more cruelly. By the time eight months had passed since the Order's creation, they had already fought in about a dozen Death Eater attacks, losing several members while doing it: Dorcas Meadows, Benjy Fenwick, Edgar Bones, the Prewett Brothers, the whole McKinnon family…

The news of Gabriel McKinnon's had been a shock to everyone but especially to Lulu. Mia knew that something had been going on between the two of them but she wasn't sure. Whatever it was, Mia knew for sure that she had never seen her nanny as grief-stricken as in the moment Dumbledore had announced that the whole McKinnon Clan was dead. And, to a certain point, Mia had felt surprisingly sad too. She had lost count of how many times he had saved her life during battles, sometimes seeming like he was looking out for her just as much as Sirius was, a fact that had caused them to grow into some sort of friendship. Now she would never know why he did that.

But rare moments of peace would come from time to time, even though there seemed to be less and less as the months passed. Nevertheless, the very last day of July 1980 brought one of these moments in the form of new life.

"Hi, Harry," Mia whispered, looking down at the newborn baby in her best friend's arms. The little boy was barely two hours old and he had already illuminated not only his parents'world but also their friends'. "It's hard to believe people can actually be this small. He's really cute, Lily."

Lily smiled in wonder. "He has his daddy's hair."

Mia chuckled. "You will have to chase him all over the place with a comb when he is old enough to run," she said, letting the little boy grasp her finger. "I can't believe my best friend has a baby."

"That's understandable. _I _can't believe I have a baby," the redhead told her. "Do you want to hold him?"

She raised an eyebrow, looking down at her friend. "You're insane. I've never held a baby in my life. I'll break your son in a half."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course you won't break him in a half," she assured Mia. "Come here. I'll help you."

She sighed and sat on the edge of the redhead's hospital bed. Lily carefully shifted on the bed and passed her son to her best friend. "Support his head," the new mother told her.

Mia looked up at Lily nervously, silently asking her if she was doing okay, and she gave her a nod in return and leaned back against the pillows. It wasn't so difficult, after all. The little boy had adjusted him little form to her body and now slept peacefully in her arms, his little chest rising and falling as he breathed. She got up slowly and started pacing around the room as she looked down at Harry.

"See? You're a natural, Mia," Lily whispered.

Mia smiled. She had never felt something like that before. "Merlin… It is so incredible."

"This is probably a good time to tell you that James and I want you to be Harry's godmother."

Mia looked up at her best friend and just stared at her for what seemed to be a long time. "His godmother?"

The redhead nodded. "I don't think I would trust anyone else more that you to be a mother to my son in case something happens to me, Mia. James is asking Sirius to be the godfather as we speak. We want the two of you to be a part of Harry's life."

"But what about Elizabeth?"

"I've talked to her already," Lily told her. "She really thinks you are the better choice. You have to admit she is still very far from settling down."

"I… I don't know what to say," Mia whispered before looking down at little Harry again. "I'd be honoured to be his godmother, Lily. Thank you so much."

Lily laughed. "Thank _you_. For accepting."

A soft knock in the room's door cause the two women to turn to it. _"Everyone decent in there?"_ they heard Sirius's voice though the door.

"Well, I am by I can't assure you the same about Mia," Lily replied playfully.

The door opened and Sirius entered the room with a smirk. "Her lack of decency is something I don't have a problem with."

Mia rolled her eyes from where she stood. "I'm flattered," she told him sarcastically.

Sirius turned to her and felt his whole world shift. There was something about seeing her holding a baby that made… it was hard to explain what that made him feel but the closest way to put it was by saying that he had just fallen in love with her all over again.

"What?" she asked him with an eyebrow rose, noticing his stare.

"I'll tell you later," he promised her before turning to Lily. "So, Prongs seems to be under the impression that you have agreed with making me your kid's godfather, Lily. Let me just warn you that it is too late for you to take it back because I have already said yes."

"Aw, now you're making me sound mean," Lily told him, crossing her arms against her chest. "I'm pretty sure with Mia's help you'll be a decent godparent."

"With _Mia's help_?" he asked in an offended tone.

"I trust she won't let you go overboard when it comes to spoiling," she explained.

Mia chuckled from her spot. "I make no promises." She looked down at her godson again for a moment and saw that he was awake and looking up at her with a tiny frown. "Oh, hi there," she whispered.

"The little guy is awake?" Sirius asked approaching his girlfriend. Mia nodded and shifted their godson for him to take a peak "The kid is way too handsome to be Prongs's," he stated when he saw James entering the room by the corner of his eye.

"I heard that!" James said. "Just wait for your turn to receive smartarse comments when I see your little snots."

"Hey," Mia protested. "That's my kids you're talking about!"

He raised his hands in defeat. "Half-snots, then," James corrected himself as he walked in their direction. "Now, pass over my son and go home to make your own."

Sighing, she carefully passed him the baby and took one step back, letting Sirius envelop her with one of his arms. It was funny how light her arms felt, now that she wasn't holding harry anymore.

"Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow, then," Sirius said

"Thank you for coming right away," Lily told them from the bed. "Even though it was two in the morning."

Mia shrugged, approaching her and sitting on the edge of the bed. "It's not every day your best friend has a baby. Besides, we don't work tomorrow… I mean, today. My sense of time is a little confused right now." She hugged Lily before getting up and joining Sirius again.

"We'll come back this afternoon. Congratulations again, mate," Sirius told James, patting him on the back.

---

"The sun is already rising?" Mia asked with a sleepy voice as she closed the curtains the room. "What time is it?"

Sirius checked his wristwatch before placing in on the bedside table. "Five-thirty," he mumbled as he got into bed. "I guess that makes us early sleepers."

Mia snorted, also getting under the covers. "I think that expression doesn't apply to going to sleep _before_ noon."

Turning to his side in order to face her, he saw at the smile that was playing on her face. Sirius hadn't seen his girlfriend smile like that in a while – all the attacks and death that she had witnessed in the past months hadn't allowed her too. "You look happy," he pointed out.

"That is because I am," she told him. "You know, Harry being born showed me that not even this war can take all the happiness from us. I felt hope when I held him. It was just so amazing, Sirius. You know, for a moment I wished he was ours; it made me realize how much I want to have your babies."

Sirius grinned and caressed her cheek with his hand. "I'll be more than happy to provide."

That was exactly what she had wanted to her. He hadn't hesitated for a second. "Just… how many do you want to have?" she asked him. "We've never really talked about numbers, have we?"

He shook his head. "Well," he started, "I would actually like to have several of them. Maybe enough to form a Quidditch team."

Mia raised an eyebrow. "How many players exactly does a Quidditch team have? Five?"

"You don't know how many players a Quidditch team has? You've been to practically all my games!"

She shrugged. "Hey! For all I cared, the team might just have one player: you. But, really, how many players?"

Sirius gulped. She wasn't going to like that. But she was to ask in the first place. "Er… seven… plus reserves, but I am not counting them," her told her.

Her eyes almost jumped out of her face as she stared at him. "Seven?!" she asked in disbelief. She had seen what Lily had to bear with her pregnancy: swollen feet, back aches, peeing every ten minutes. He wanted her to go through all that all that times seven?! "You want me to pop out seven kids for you? You have to be losing it!"

"Hey, no need to freak out! I'll be happy with as many as you are willing to give me," he told her. "I guess I can borrow some of James's kids for the team."

"You'd better," she warned him. "I can't possibly give birth to _seven_ kids."

He shook his head. "Oh, I am pretty sure you can do anything, Mia," Sirius told her with a playful smile on his face.

She chuckled. "In your dreams."

"Sure that is possible in my dreams," he said. "But it also is in reality."

Mia sighed. "What the hell was I thinking when I fell for a nutter like you?" she mumbled, hiding her face in the pillow. _Seven kids… mental, _she thought.

Sirius grinned even wider. "That you loved me and all that mushy stuff."

---

It was four months later that everything changed. A day that started as a perfectly normal and turned out not to be so much.

It was almost midnight when Sirius arrived home, entering the apartment with a very worried look on his face that gave Mia the chills.

"What happened?" she asked as soon as she saw him entering the house, getting up from the sofa where she had been reading. She could tell something wasn't right. "Was there another attack?"

Sirius shook his head. "He's after Harry," her boyfriend said, approaching her. "You-know-who is after Harry."

Mia's eyes widened. "What?!" That wasn't possible. That just… couldn't be. Harry, her godson, was just a baby. Why on Earth would Voldemort go after a four-month-old baby? "What makes you think that?"

"Dumbledore," Sirius panted, sinking on the sofa. "James hasn't told me the specifics but he said that Dumbledore has reasons to believe that _he_ is after Harry."

She shook her head repeatedly, taking a seat by his side. "That… that can't be! Harry is just a baby! He didn't do anything to set Voldemort off!"

Sirius nodded. "All I know is that it is something about a baby born in the end of July to parents that have faced You-know-who three times… Harry fits and so does Frank and Alice Longbottom's boy, Neville. They weren't so lucky…"

"What do you mean?" Mia asked worriedly. She had never been very close to the Longbottoms but they had never been nothing but nice to her.

He looked away. "Bellatrix happened. She and some other Death Eaters caught Frank and Alice and tortured them to insanity. They have been sent to St. Mungos but things don't seem to be good. Neville was with his grandmother, so they didn't get him."

Mia covered her mouth and gasped. "Dear Merlin…" she whispered.

"That could have been Lily and James if they had gotten to them first," Sirius said. "Dumbledore is sending them into hiding. They'll use a fidelius charm to keep their location unknown."

"They know how to do it?" Mia inquired. Very few wizards and witched knew how to do that spell. It could lead to disastrous consequences when miscast.

"Dumbledore and Flitwick are working on teaching Lily. She was always good with charms," Sirius told her. "They asked me to be the secret-keeper."

"Did you accept?" Mia asked immediately.

He shook his head. "I'm too obvious," he told her. "Everyone knows I am James's best mate. It would be too risky. If the Death Eaters caught me…"

"You wouldn't breathe a word," she said in sure tone.

Sirius sighed. "They have ways, Mia," he stated. "Veritaserum, the Imperius curse, torture… Everyone talks if the right pressure is applied. They needed someone less obvious. Someone like—"

"No!" she shouted before he could say anything. "Don't tell me. You've just said it yourself: everyone talks. The less people who know who Lily and James's secret-keeper is, the better. I am not about to put them in danger by knowing."

He hesitated for a second but then nodded. "That makes sense."

She sighed. "Do you think they will be okay?"

Sirius shrugged. "I have no idea, Mia," he said. "But they have all the protection that Dumbledore can provide. Hopefully we will be able to end this stupid war soon."

"I hope you're right," she whispered. That was what Mia prayed for every night. She knew that as long as that war kept going, she and Sirius would never be fully happy knowing that any of their friends, or even one of them, could die at any moment.

**A/N: Just one more chapter and this one is done. How did you like this one? I am just wondering... how do you think thie fic will end? Like it happens in the books or completely different? Review!**


	18. Farewell

It was the beginning of April and ever since Lily and James were sent into hiding five months earlier, Sirius and Mia had only managed to lay eyes on them twice: once when they had spent Christmas night together and other in the beginning of February. Today, they would be paying their best friends another visit.

Things hadn't gotten any better as the time passed. If only, now the Death Eaters were looking all around for the Potters and attacking even more often. Mia knew they were trying to tail her and Sirius so they would lead them to their friend's hiding place. That was the reason why they visited them so rarely – even though it was unlike that the Death Eaters would be able to break the fidelius charm, they could never be too careful.

So, after meeting Dumbledore in Hogwarts, sneaking to Hogsmeade through the Shrieking Shack and apparating to Godric's Hallow, Mia and Sirius found themselves in Lily and James's place.

"He is growing like a weed!" Mia said as she held Harry, who was distractedly chewing his fist. "What do you feed him? Engorging potion?"

Lily chuckled. "Children tend to grow fast at that age," she told her best friend from the sofa.

Mia smiled and sat by her best friend's side, settling Harry on her lap. "Merlin, I hate not being able to see you all more often… I feel like a lousy godmother."

"Don't be silly, Mia," Lily told her. "If you were such a lousy godmother, Harry wouldn't remember you after not seeing you for two months. He was all smiles when he saw you and Sirius coming through the front door."

She sighed and ruffled her godson's messy black hair, causing him to giggle. "Still…"

"Still, nothing," the redhead said, shaking her head. "Now, let's change the subject. How was yours and Sirius's birthday this year? You went to Paris, didn't you?"

Mia nodded with a wide grin before putting Harry on the floor so he could crawl back to his toys – it didn't seem right talking about hers and Sirius's 'adventure' in Paris with her poor innocent godson on her lap. "It was… bloody fantastic."

"Bloody fantastic as in 'we didn't even leave the room'?" Lily asked her playfully.

She blushed. "We did leave the room… but just so we could pay Elizabeth a visit – she would murder us if she heard we had been to Paris and didn't even pay her a visit."

"And the rest of the weekend was spent in the Hotel Room living of room service," Lily finished for her. "You two are just so dumb. Spending a whole weekend in Paris and staying in the hotel almost the whole time. What a waste!"

"It definitely didn't seem like a waste to me," Mia mumbled. "Oh, and by the way, Sirius loved that _thing_ that James sent to our apartment. He might as well have sent him a bomb," she told her best friend in a not-so-happy tone.

"You're talking about the flying motorbike?" Lily asked equally annoyed.

"Yeah," she said. "And I am warning you that if Sirius gets himself killed riding that thing, James won't stay alive much longer than him, so you'd better pray."

Lily rolled her eyes, shaking his head. "I told him you wouldn't be happy about it."

---

"_And the Cannons score… wait, looks like their seeker caught the snitch too soon. The points are not valid and, despite having caught the snitch, the Chudley Cannons lose another game."_

"Dumb luck," James moaned, hearing the broadcast in the house's dinning room. "I actually thought they might beat Puddlemore United this time. This game kind of reminds me of that one in fifth year when you got your skull cracked. Your brother caught the snitch but Slytherin lost anyway."

Sirius groaned. "Don't remind me. Just thinking of the headache I got after makes me shiver," he said. Actually, just thinking of Regulus, who was missing for months, made him shiver. He had done all he could to save his brother but hadn't succeeded in the end, to his eternal frustration.

James chuckled. "It did give you a good excuse to feel Mia up."

Rolling his eyes, Sirius huffed. "For the millionth time, Prongs, I didn't feel Mia up… well, not that time, at least. And I don't need excuses to do that these days, anyway. She's my girlfriend."

"That's a valid point, mate," James gave him.

Sirius coughed. "Speaking of valid points…" he said, waving his wand at the door and closing it as he used his other hand to remove something from his pocket. He placed what revealed itself to be a little velvet box on top of the table and opened it to show a ring. "What do you think?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, mate, but I am very happily married," James joked.

He groaned. "It's for Mia, you bloody idiot! Quit joking around and help me out here – I don't think I've ever been this nervous in my life!"

Instead of talking, James stared at his best friend for a few seconds before he burst into laughter.

"What the bloody hell are you laughing at?" Sirius asked in disbelief. "Stop it!"

Seeing that maybe that wasn't the perfect occasion for that, James bit his inner lip trying to stop laughing. "I'm sorry. It's just that… _you _are nervous about asking Mia to marry you! That's ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous? You were shaking like a little girl when you asked Lily!" he countered.

"Well, yeah. But keep in mind that Lily had a history of hatred for me," James replied in an obvious tone. "Plus, we weren't dating for as long as you and Mia. That made the odds of Lily saying 'no' because it was too soon of something a lot higher than Mia ever rejecting you."

He had to admit his best friend had a point there. Sirius had been thinking of asking Mia for a while but it had only been two days ago that he had gotten the courage to walk into a jewellery and get the ring. But, of course, the ring had brought a considerable dose of nerves along… "You think she's really going like it?"

James rolled his eyes. "I'll eat my foot if she doesn't. You don't have any reason to be nervous. When are you gonna pop the question?"

"I was thinking of tonight when we get home," Sirius said.

"Good. But, after she says 'yes', make sure you don't set the date before I arrange things with Dumbledore so Lily and I can go to the wedding. That's definitely something I don't want to miss," James warned him. "Oh, and by the way, Mia and I sort of made an arrangement back in fifth year that I'd be your best-man if you ever ended up getting married. You'd better honour it?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You talked to Mia about us getting married back in fifth year?! And she agreed to make you my best man?"

James shrugged. "She didn't really say 'yes', but she didn't say 'no' either. Just go ahead and ask her. It's taken you long enough."

---

Mia sighed as Sirius came from behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, planting a kiss on her neck moments after they arrived to their apartment. She turned around in order to face him and saw him smiling down at her. "You're in awfully good mood now, aren't you?" she asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, I am," he confirmed. All the nervousness seemed to have faded after his conversation with James had made him realize that she would most likely say yes. Instead, he felt anxious to ask her now.

"Do I want to know why?" she asked suspiciously. For all Mia, he and James might have been planning to build some other deadly flying thing, which definitely wouldn't lead her to share his mood. But, for her relief, he nodded.

"I think you do," Sirius told her. There was something about her for the past week that made her seem even more beautiful to him than she usually did – some sort of glow. He caressed one of her cheeks with his hand and took one step closer, planting a kiss on her lips.

Mia raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. That kiss made her feel like they were back in Hogwarts just being in love – there was no war, no death… just them. Ever since their magnificent weekend in Paris about a month before, they had barely had time to enjoy moments like that between work and fighting for the Order and when they did, now included, she always wondered if that would be the last…

She sighed against his lips when they broke apart. "I love it when you do that," Mia told him.

Sirius grinned and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I know," he replied. "Now, I need to tell you something."

"Is it about what is putting you in such a good mood?"

He nodded, grabbing her hand and leading her to the sofa. He knew now was the best moment … the perfect moment. Another step into their future together.

After they sat on the sofa, Mia looked at him expectantly, wondering what was coming. She didn't know why, but her heart was beating very fast – something told her that what was about to come was really important.

Sirius's hand reached for his pocket and he was going to take the ring box out of it, when, suddenly, something tapped in the window. His head turned to look at the window and he saw an owl outside of it. _Ruddy bird!_

"I'll get it," Mia said quickly, getting up to reach the window. She just wanted to get rid of the bird and get back to Sirius. Nevertheless, in the moment she looked at the little note that the owl had brought, Mia saw that might take longer than she expected. "It says '_urgent'_," she told her boyfriend, returning to the sofa.

He groaned. It couldn't be Dumbledore summoning them to a battle, could it? He usually just floo call them. "Read it out loud."

Mia opened the note and cleared her throat before reading._ "Floo to Minerva's office, I've already made the arrangements," _she read. But when she saw the next sentence, she froze.

"Mia, what is it?" Sirius asked.

Silently and with a grim look on her face, Mia passed him the note. Sirius immediately understood what had gotten into her. "_Amelia is in danger. Hurry! Albus Dumbledore."_ His first instinct was to do exactly what the note said. Without saying a word, Sirius grabbed his girlfriend by the arm and lead her to the fireplace from where he flooed her to their old school as fast as he could.

McGonagall's office was badly lit. Dumbledore was sitting by the professor's desk, while she stood by the fireplace already in her night clothes, seemingly waiting for them to arrive. Her face was covered with relief when she first laid eyes on them.

"Oh, thank goodness we were in time," the old teacher said. "Are you alright, did they get to you?"

"Did who got to us?" Sirius asked her wrapping on arm protectively around Mia. "What is going on?"

Dumbledore coughed, causing the three to turn to him. "Amelia, why don't you and Sirius take a seat?"

Mia's breath caught at his tone as Sirius silently lead her to a chair in front of the desk. After she was settled on it, he sat on another chair at her right.

The old man took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sorry to inform you, Amelia, that your parents were killed hours ago."

She didn't react. In fact, she barely felt anything. Mia couldn't feel anything more than she would if it had been someone she didn't know who had died instead of her parents. It was horrible but it was the truth – Susan and Phillip Davis were nothing but strangers to her. "How?" she simply asked in a relatively normal tone.

"Death Eater attack," Dumbledore told her. "In fact, Lord Voldemort sent us a warning about the attack but we were too late. I assume it was his way of sending the Order a message."

Sirius coughed. "But what about Mia?" he asked. "You said she was in danger in your message."

The old professor nodded. "The message didn't say that it was specifically Susan and Philip that were marked to die," he explained. "I believe the words were '_The Davises will die_'. Amelia is a Davis too, Sirius. It wouldn't be the first time he vanished a whole family."

"The McKinnons," Mia whispered, covering her mouth as tears ran down her face. "They want to kill me like they killed Marlene, Gabriel and all their family," she choked out.

"What are we going to do?" Sirius asked, letting his girlfriend burry her face against his neck as she cried. Seeing Mia cry was something he absolutely hated – she rarely did it but when she did, he couldn't help feeling like he was in pain too. "I won't let her die, we have to save her!"

"I've already made the arrangements to protect her," Dumbledore informed him before turning to her. "Amelia, you'll have to go into hiding. I found you a safe place where you can go and be protected while you need."

"What about Sirius, he'll come with me, won't he?" Mia asked, turning her face to him. She needed Sirius with her. The simple idea of staying away from him was painful by itself.

"I'm afraid he can't," Dumbledore answered sadly. "He is an important member of the Order and it would be too suspicious if he left suddenly. Your departure should be as discrete as possible. If you go, you can't contact anybody here. I or Minerva will contact you when it is necessary," he continued.

Mia shook her head. "I'm not going. Not if Sirius has to stay. You don't even know if they wanted to kill me too. I'll be careful…"

"No. You have to go, Mia," Sirius told her, grabbing her by her shoulders and looking her in the eyes. "As careful as you and I try to be, if you stay here Voldemort will get you if that's what he wants to do!"

She kept shaking her head, sobbing. "I can't! I don't want to stay away from you, Sirius!" she said.

"I don't want that either," he told her. "But I would rather have you far away than dead!" Sirius loved her too much to dare risking her life.

"I don't want to go," she whispered in tears.

He couldn't help himself any longer and pulled her as close as he could. It felt like his worst nightmare was coming true… "You have to go. I need you to stay alive for me. This is not forever. I promise you."

From their spots, McGonagall and Dumbledore watched the heat-breaking scene before the headmaster had to step in again. "Amelia, I need you to make the decision. The longer we take the worse."

Sirius looked at her. "Please,Mia…" he whispered.

She didn't want to go, but knew she had to. She took a deep breath and turned to the headmaster. "I'm going."

Dumbledore nodded before getting up. "Very well," he said in a faint tone. "I will arrange a portkey to leave in ten minutes, so, please don't take long. Minerva and I will give you some privacy."

The two teachers left the office silently, leaving Sirius and Mia inside alone.

"This is not forever, Mia," Sirius whispered to her, resting his hand on her cheek. "You'll see it will be over in a few weeks."

"What if it doesn't?" she asked in tears.

"Then we will wait," he told her surely. "I promise you we will be together again, Mia. Even if it is the last thing I do. I swear on everything that is must dear to me that I will never, ever forget about us. Do you believe me?"

Mia nodded silently. "Why did this have to happen, Sirius?"

"I don't know," he answered, leaning closer to her and pulling her into a tight hug. Things hadn't turned out the way he had planned at all. He had imagined that by this time they would be celebrating their engagement, not saying their goodbyes. "Maybe this is the universe's way of testing us."

She sighed and held on to him like the world would end if she stopped. Mia didn't want to let go. She didn't want to leave. "I love you," she declared. "I love you so much, Sirius. I need you."

He pulled back just enough to look her in the eyes. "I love you too, my Mia. I always did and I always will. Promise me you will be alright."

"How, Sirius?" she asked in despair.

"You have to try, Mia. I need you to be alright," he told her. It was like part of him was leaving with her.

"All I can promise is that I will try," Mia said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "It's almost time."

Without another word, Sirius pulled her to a last kiss. It felt like a farewell all over but he knew he would have regretted forever if he hadn't shared one last kiss with her. Their foreheads rested against each other after they broke apart. "You have to go," he whispered with his eyes closed.

"I know," she replied, pulling away.

She immediately felt at loss in the moment they stopped touching, but when she felt her feet leaving the floor as the portkey left, that feeling multiplied by millions. At least she had been able to say goodbye to him. The same couldn't be said about Lulu, Lily, James, little Harry and her other friends.

"Where are we?" Mia asked the headmaster seconds after they landed.

"In Montreal, Canada."

---

**One month and a half later**

Mia missed her family, her friends, Sirius… Every time she turned on her muggle TV, she saw news concerning the mysterious wave of deaths back in Britain and worried that he was among them.

Work had been the only thing to keep her sane lately. Dumbledore had gotten her a job in St. Bastian's, Montreal's equivalent to St. Mungo's and there she worked as many shifts as she could. She would feel exhausted most of the time but it was worth being able to spend that time thinking of how wrong her life was right now.

But everything had come crashing down to that day. One moment she was healing an old lady who had broke her hip, the other everything was black. Next thing she knew, Mia was in a Hospital bed staring up at the ceiling.

"I zink shee is waking up," someone who Mia recognized to be one of the nurses said in a deep French accent. "Ameelia. Can you eer me?"

"Yes," she whispered. "What happened?"

"You fainted," someone else said. Mia looked at the source of the voice to see one of her supervisors standing there. "You got yourself dehydrated. What were you thinking? Working at this rhythm in your condition?"

"Condition?" Mia asked in confusion. She didn't recall having any condition, apart from an empty heart.

"When was the last time you had your period?" the healer asked her.

That was a good question. "I… hum… I haven't really been keeping track of it," Mia admitted. "I've been preoccupied. Before I started to work here, I guess."

"You have been working heer for more zan a month," the nurse told her. "Zat feets into ze diagnose."

"What… what diagnose?" she inquired, feeling sort of numb. Was she dying? Because sometimes she did feel like she was.

The healer sighed. "You're pregnant, Amelia."

**THE END (not so much...)**

A/N: SEQUEL POSTED - "Brave New World". But don't jump right into it... It's been a long ride and, well, I'd like to thank all my readers and reviews because you were great - let's hope you'll still be great with the sequel. Now, how about you tell me what you thought about this fic overall? 


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